CRFFN to Deregister Untrained Freight Forwarders by Dec. 2023

Esther Oluku

In a move to enshrine professionalism into freight forwarding practice in Nigeria, the Registrar, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Mr. Sam Nwakohu, has disclosed that that council has decided to deregister all untrained freight forwarders by the end of December 2023.

He made this known during the 23rd Anniversary of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) in Lagos yesterday.

Nwakohu stated that education and certification in the freight forwarding practice is crucial as the Nigerian Maritime space moves into the future as such would place indeginous freight forwarders at par with their colleagues across the world.

He noted that the Council is committed to ensuring that all freight forwarders are duly registered, certified in line with world best practices.

According to him, the Council has taken a decision to deregister any freight forwarder who does not possess at least a Diploma in Freight Forwarding by the end of 2023.

He therefore urged freight forwarders to enroll for training and ensure their certification before the given time frame to avoid being de-registered from practicing in Nigeria.

Also speaking on the need for professionalism in the freight forwarding space, the Chairman, Institute of Maritime Studies, Unilag, Mr. Iyiola Oni, while presenting the lead paper at the event opined that the need for professionalism in the freight forwarding practice is imminent to checkmate quacks who are now in proliferation in the industry.

Oni expressed concern that the freight forwarding practice in Nigeria lacks the standardization it possesses in other parts of the world and as such pointed that the need for training and retraining must be embraced for the practice of freight forwarding in Nigeria to attain the status of a noble professional.

Speaking on the sidelines on why the NAGAFF academy is yet to be accredited as a training Institute or registered by CRFFN, the Founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, said that the struggle for the accreditation of the academy is still ongoing.

His words: “The liberation struggle is ongoing and the matter is still before an Appeal court. NAGAFFas an organisation under my watch founded CRFFN through an Act of the National Assembly which today is a Law. CRFFN as it were is not an agency of the government. It is a pseudo organisation and quassi government agency but those who were not part of the process bungled it and started parading themselves as government officials. But it is not over until it is over.”