National President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Eugene Nweke, has accused Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, of not being bothered by the crippled state of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).
Nweke, in a statement sent to SHIPS & PORTS DAILY, wondered why, according to him, the Transport Minister not to have mentioned “the state of administrative well-being of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria”, during his midterm report briefing at the 2013 Ministerial Platform held in Abuja recently.
“The Minister by the provisions of the Act 16, 2007 is empowered to issue a directive of a general character by way of intervening on bordering issues of the Council, in addition to its supervisory roles. The Act envisaged that, the transport ministry is to nurture the Council to stability stage. It is pertinent to observe that, the Honorable Minister appears not to appreciate the strategic roles of the freight forwarders in the maritime supply chain,” Nweke stated.
He said that the operational efficiency of the nation’s ports can only be viable with the “effective training and retraining of freight forwarders by way of professionalism,” hence the need for the Transport Minister to take cognizance of the CRFFN.
“The effective implementation of government policies in our trade environment ends up in the strategic expertise and practicing proficiency of the forwarders. Therefore, the continuous ignominy of the Regulatory Council will be tantamount to a continuous promotion of unprofessional conducts in the port industry and high incidences of non compliance to trade laws,” the NAGAFF National President added.
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