Freight forwarders knock CRFFN for lack of capacity building for members despite huge budget
...call for renewal of membership ID cards 11 years after
Segun Oladipupo
Freight forwarders in the Nigeria maritime industry have knocked the regulatory agency, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) for failure to conduct trainings for members despite huge budget earmarked for the purpose by the government.
The National Secretary of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders, Nigeria (AREFFN), Francis Obiekezie expressed displeasure over the development in a chat with journalists in his office on Tuesday.
He disclosed that members spend about N120,000 and N250,000 to get Diploma and Higher Diploma certificates in freight forwarding related courses.
He added that instead of CRFFN to train members, it outsourced it to external body that carry out the training on its behalf.
The AREFFN scribe however added that the regulator needed to be stabilised in order to be able to perform function of capacity building for registered freight forwarders.
Speaking further, Obiekezie called on the regulatory agency to renew the membership Identity Card last issued in 2012 before the expiration of the tenure of the new board in 2024.
“CRFFN identity card was been issued to members back in 2012 and up until today there is no renewal and this does not show seriousness and commitment about the Council.
“We have been quarrelling with CRFFN on capacity building for members and practitioners. We can only get this benefit when CRFFN stabilizes.”
On job creation and awareness on potentials of maritime, the association chieftain said tha group would engage the youth through the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to engage about a thousand graduates in the sector on annual basis.
He maintained that about 1,000 fresh graduates would be trained and injected into the sector since CRFFN has failed in its core mandate of capacity building for the professional members.
He averred that the group would engage the Redeemers University to train the youth.
His words, “We are concentrating on young minds who want to make first choice career in freight forwarding and we want to inject at least 1000 graduates into the business.”
“Our members are trained by Redeemers University currently, and we pay for this services which ordinarily should be funded by CRFFN according to the act.”
