Maritime
NATIONAL Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC) on Tuesday expressed displeasure with the way freight forwarding business was perceived in the country.
The President of the association, Mr Adeyinka Bakare, spoke at a roundtable session with the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NAFFAC is an association aimed at promoting air freight forwarding in particular and freight forwarding in general as a professional venture.
According to him, efforts by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to boost the image of freight forwarders had not yielded the required result.
“Since inception of the association in 1985, apart from funds, the idea of what the profession is perceived to be is a challenge for the industry, and so the need to state that freight forwarding is not clearing and forwarding.
“Freight forwarding goes beyond clearing and forwarding alone, it meets conditions from all sectors that the cargo will pass from the point of inception to the final destination,” he said.
Bakare said that to change that image, CRFFN was pushing for the profession to have one body and be professional, which was achievable.
He said that they were campaigning for a uniform training that would ensure that all members were compliant to being in tune to world standard and able to boost their capacity in the industry.
The association president said that going forward, before one was admitted into the industry, the person should have some qualifications, irrespective of degree or where the person was coming from.
He said that as regard issues on charges, they had been at loggerheads with the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria on handling charges for more than 13 years now.
Bakare said that in the past two weeks, there had been an increase.
According to him, the association is not against charge increase due to state of economy but want stakeholders to be carried along.
“The two terminal warehouses increased their charges by 100 per cent and we stood against it. Today, the increment is 40 per cent, but we are asking for 30 percent from them.
“For the issue of closing of shelf on cargoes, it was placed at 7 o’clock for security reasons but they are still seeing a situation whereby it can be extended,” he said.
Bakare said that in the next two years, bringing other chapters up like that of Port Harcourt, for more prominence, and having a befitting Secretariat would be their main focus. (NAN)
– Nov. 26, 2019 @ 17:05 GMT |
Tags: Freight forwarding association unhappy with poor business image in Nigeria
