The Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers and Exporters Coalition (SNFFIEC) has raised the alarm that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria (CRFFN) is being run by unprofessional personnel, leading to the inability of the Council to pay its workers’ salaries.
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune exclusively in Lagos, National Coordinator of SNFFIEC, Chief OsitaChukwu asked that what has happened to all the money that CRFFN has been collecting as Practitioners Operating Fee (POF) since inception.
According to Chief Osita Chukwu, “The appointment of unprofessional personnel at the leadership of the CRFFN is a major reason why the Council is going moribund.
“Government appointment of unprofessional personnel at the leadership positions of the CRFFN is a major reason the Council is struggling. Tell me, what has the Council achieved since inception till date?
“Look at CRFFN telling government that the Council does not have funds to pay workers salaries. Is that not a shame? What has happened to all the POF that CRFFFN has been collecting at the ports all these years?
“In the first place, the POF is supposed to be meant for the practitioners, but the CRFFFN didn’t implement that. So where is the money? The CRFFFN has been collecting POF from we practitioners since inception, where is it? Yet the Council said it does not have money to pay salaries.
“Government should either scrap CRFFN or relieve the leadership of its duties and appoint core professionals to manage the affairs of the Council.”
Recall that while on a courtesy visit to the headquarters of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) recently, the Acting Registrar of CRFFN, Mrs. Chinyere Uromta said the Council is in need of funds to sustain itself in terms of staff salaries and to also provide training and retraining of freight forwarders as part of its mandate.
