The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has elected a new governing council.
This is coming six years after the tenure of the last governing council members expired in 2012. Since then, CRFFN had been without a governing council leading to the inability of the council to carry out any meaningful activity in the last six years.
The election, which was held weekend at the council’s headquarters in Apapa, saw 15 freight forwarding practitioners drawn from the five registered freight forwarding associations elected into the governing council.
The five associations are the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agent (NCMDLCA), Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) and National Association of Air Freight Forwarding and Consolidation (NAFFAC).
The 15 newly elected officials comprised of six each from NAGAFF and ANLCA and one each from AREFFN, NCMDLCA and NAFFAC.
Addressing journalists at the end of the election, Registrar of the council, Sir Mike Jukwe, said the 15 candidates elected would join 17 government appointees that would constitute the 32 member governing council.
He urged the freight forwarders to collaborate and make policies that will drive the freight forwarding profession to a greater height.
He said, ” This is a long, tedious but successful journey. We hope that the spirit with which the practitioners have conducted themselves, they will take it along to the governing council so that good policies will be made and the council can move forward and take freight forwarders to that height we expect of Nigeria.
“Our mandate is to regulate and control freight forwarding in Nigeria. Now that we have a governing council, policies will be made for the management to execute.The policies are geared towards taking the freight forwarding sub sector from where it is now to a higher level of best international norms and practices.”
Founder of NAGAFF, Dr Boniface Aniebonam, expressed optimism that with the coming on board of the governing council, CRFFN would be well positioned to sustain and meet up with its mandate.
“For the first time, all the five registered associations are speaking with one voice, and see the need for them to advance the freight forwarding practice in Nigeria. I see the need for all the associations to collaborate because the cooperation led to the peaceful election conducted into the council,” he said.
Aniebonam urged the newly elected council members to regulate the sector in line with international standards and train practitioners on the rudiments of freight forwarding practice.
ANLCA’s Chief Henry Njoku, who once served on the last governing council and is an elected member of the new council, said the governing council would look into the challenges facing the freight forwarding sub-sector with a view to tackling them.
He said, “Having x-rayed what has happened between then and now, we have gathered more experience and we believe that if we go there, we will make it look better than what we have seen in the past.”
Elected members of the governing council include Agubanze Emmanuel, Ozo Chukwurah, Kayode Farinto, Henry Njoku, Awogbemi Timothy and Increase Uche.
Others are Sanni Shittu, Daura Bala, Ezisi Emmanuel, Ezeh Grace, Peter Obih, Ekemezie Joseph, Kelly Austine, Bakara Adeyinke and Azeez Tajudeen.