The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has accredited the Global Maritime Academy, Ughelli, Delta State, as the official trainer of freight forwarders in the eastern zone, as a way to sanitising the freight forwarding industry in the zone.
This was disclosed by the rector of the academy, Engr. Isaac Aikoroje in Lagos recently.
Aikoroje said that the era of seeing freight forwarders as touts had gone, as practicing freight forwarders in the zone must undergo training from the institution before they can be recognised.
He described the training of freight forwarders as international best practice, because the International Federation of Freight Forwarding Association, (FIATA) had mandated all member- countries to follow up with the practice.
“FIATA, in collaboration with CRFFN agreed that only qualified personnel who know the rudiment of the business; who know that to move the goods you need, good vehicles must be asked to work and not touts who are masquerading as freight Forwarders.
“Touts can no longer be involved in freight forwarding and what we have done is to carry out a campaign in Warri Port, to tell Customs that CRFFN has mandated us to train freight forwarders, hence touts will no longer be operating in Eastern Ports because Lagos being a hub, has started regulating, therefore, Warri should not be exempted.”
The Academy Boss said that the end point of international trade was to ensure that goods arrived safely from the point of discharge to the point of destination, so anything that would affect the objective must not be left unattended.
He said that if this was not taken seriously, the aim of freighting would be defeated.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.