NCJTFLCA, ANCB OPPOSE COURT RULING AGAINST POF COLLECTION BY CRFFN
By Mcanthony Onuoha
The National Compliance Joint Task Force of Licensed Clearing Agents -NCJTFLCA and the Association of Nigeria Customs Brokers -ANCB have disagreed with the court ruling that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria -CRFFN does not have the right to collect practitioners Operating fees (POF).
KINGSLEY IGWE, CRFFN REGISTRAR
This solidarity is coming days after a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos declared that Licensed Customs Agents shall not be subjected to regulatory control of the Ministry of Transportation and the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), or required to pay fees or obtain clearance as a condition for access to ports or renewal of their licenses under Customs Act.
The suit No. FHC/CS/765/2018 which commenced at the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division, was filed by the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents-NCMDLCA against the Minister of Transportation, the Nigeria Ports Authority -NPA and the CRFFN as defendants.
In solidarity with the CRFFN, the National President of NCJTFLCA, High Chief Dr Basil Chudi Nwolisa, stated that,
“It should be noted that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria was established by an act of parliament by the Federal Government of Nigeria to regulate the freight forwarding business in Nigeria. Today, there is no budgetary allocation to the body from the Federal Government of Nigeria. If there is no funding, how can such a very important organization perform its duties?”
According to Nwolisa, “that a group of selfish men and women came together to blackmail the CRFFN because of their selfish interests and demand for participation in sharing the funds does not make their stance reasonable. I want to encourage the CRFFN management to appeal the judgment so as to save the Council from collapse.”
“It is also instructive to note that the so-called CRFFN-recognized premier association leaderships are a band of selfish men whose interest, just like Judas, is in the collective purse in their possession. They care less about the freight forwarders but their selfish interests, operating like appendages of the establishments. Again, these elements have never renewed their memberships since after the undocumented recognition by the CRFFN, and they are never ready to support the training and retraining of their members. To me, their position does not reflect the interest of their members as they are mostly emperors without empires”.
“I want to state without equivocation, that the NCJTFLCA and ANCB are solidly behind the CRFFN in this, and it is important to note that those behind this selfish struggle have the intention to capsize the boat because they feel they are being shortchanged in one way or the other, it is not for the collective interest of freight forwarders,” Nwolisa stated.
The CRFFN operating Act confers the Council as the apex regulatory body for freight forwarding in Nigeria, sadling it with the responsibility of ensuring uniformity in freight forwarding practice through issuance of licenses, and to support capacity building for practitioners. The Practitioners Operating Fee is the major source of funding for the Council.
Meanwhile, ANLCA, NAFFAC, AREFFN and NCMDLCA have entered a strong alliance to support the court judgement citing lack of transparency in the management of the POF.
However, the Council’s Registrar, Mr Kingsley Igwe, during a press conference recently, accused the consulting firm that collects the POF of non disclosure of the amount collected so far, saying that the process ought to be transparent with stakeholders having the knowledge of the revenue generated.
Instead of stopping the POF collection, the NCJTFLCA and ANCB rather called for urgent investigation of the consultancy firm, and subsequently, full take over of the entire collection process by the CRFFN for transparency and accountability.
