Concerned Nigerian Registered Freight Forwarders (CNRFF) has threatened to withdraw services across the nation’s seaports if the various operational challenges hindering ease of doing business are not addressed.
The CNRFF, which is a collaboration of over 10 groups in the freight forwarding and transport subsector, also gave a seven-day ultimatum to the Council For the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to provide solutions to the challenges.
The Convener of CNRFF, Dr. Basil Nwolisa, who made this known in a statement made available to newsmen, expressed surprise at the way the freight forwarders were suffering, adding that there has not been any succour from the CRFFN, whose mandate included, the welfare and protection of freight forwarding businesses.
He said the freight forwarders are facing issues relating to customs’ arbitrary issuance of Demand Notices (DN), baseless queries on genuine declarations made for customs purposes and shipping company high-handedness, and others.
Nwolisa, who sought to know what was causing the slow approach by the Council in carrying out their regulatory functions, observed that even though the CNRFF had thrown its weight in support of the implementation of the 32 resolutions contained in the Freight Forwarders Consultative Forum (FFCF) Communique issued recently, none of the items had been enforced.
He further requested to know why the freight forwarders were abandoned and forced to resort to self-help, while the CRFFN only monitored the payment of the Practitioners’ Operating Fee (POF) and ignored the welfare of those it regulates.
Nwolisa said the freight forwarders have no one to complain to, as they are just at the mercy of the government agencies and service providers.
“The Council should let us know what the issues are, particularly those we voted to represent us. The 15 practitioners owe us some explanations of what is going on in there.
“If after seven days from now and our association discover that no one cares for our plights, we shall take it officially and if that approach fails, the next option shall be to galvanise support from our members to withdraw our services from the ports all over the country.
“We have run out of patience as I speak with you. We cannot fold our hands and see our members loiter like sheep without a shepherd. If this trend continues, we cannot guarantee industrial harmony anymore as our members are living in total frustration,” the statement revealed.
