ANLCA Lampoons NAGAFF, AREFFN, Others Over Practitioners’ Fees

The National President of ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu
and NAGAFF President; Chief Eugene  Nweke

•    Accuses CRFFN of ineptitude
•    Says NAGAFF is a 'personal enterprise'
•    AREFFN is 'Building Stomach Infrastructure'

The Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has said that its members might be forced to take the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) to court over the collection of Practitioners Operating Fees and for accrediting four freight forwarding associations illegally.

The association lampooned the CRFFN for allegedly failing in its responsibilities as a regulator of freight forwarding.

Also, for deciding to go ahead with the practitioners’ fee collection without ANLCA, the association lambasted the four freight forwarding associations namely: National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF)‎, Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) and National Association of Air Freight and Consolidators (NAFAC) describing them as 'four lepros hands'

Speaking with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos on Wednesday, a member of the committee that was recently constituted  by ANLCA to interface with the CRFFN on the fees collection, Mr. Davids Chucks Kanikwu said that National Executive Council (NEC) of ANLCA did not say it was shutting its doors on fees collection, but that it was only going to discuss terms with the CRFFN on how proceeds will favour its members.

He said that ANLCA cannot sit on the same table to discuss terms of collection with the other four associations because they were given provisional accreditation in the CRFFN and this amounts to illegality.

‎"CRFFN has failed in their regulatory role, it is because of proliferation of associations that brought them, but right now they are directionless, they gave provisional accreditation to these associations and it ought to have been reviewed because they have failed to meet the standard"

"An association that was given a temporary accreditation can not stand up and start dictating the tune‎, they are the greedy party because they are just concerned about the money they will get, they are doing stomach infrastructure‎" he said.

He said that ANLCA can decide not to be regulated by the CRFFN because it is already a member of the International Federation of Customs Brokers Association (IFCBA).

‎He condemned comments made by NAGAFF President; Eugene Nweke against ANLCA President, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, he said that Shittu should be commended for initially extending a hand of cooperation and collaboration and not for them to question his magnanimity.

According to him, ANLCA members are going to pay a huge percentage of the fees that would be collected because the CRFFN intends to use POS machines at all chapters of associations to collect the fund.

He however lamented that many of the associations including AREFFN, NAFAC and National Council do not have members or secretariat that will pay practitioners’ fees.

"ANLCA has a complete spread and a very functional National Secretariat, how can we now sit with these kind of people in gangster style‎ and discuss money", he wondered.

Kanikwu queried the CRFFN on subventions and moneys so far collected from freight forwarders, saying that this is enough to conduct an election into the governing council of the Council.

According to him, "CRFFN is a government parastatal, when there is no governing council in place, the Registrar is just a servant, all these steps they are taking contravenes the Act, why are they hasty in collection of practicing fees when they have not regulated properly? Have they stemmed the proliferation in the industry?"

Taking a swipe at the NAGAFF, Kanikwu said that, "in that association, the higher you go, the more narrow you become, when they cannot achieve their aim they run back to ANLCA, I am one of the people that left that place, some of us transmitted through there and we saw that it was a personal enterprise"

"I wonder why Eugene will have the effrontery to cast aspersions on the National President of ANLCA‎ who saved him from the clutches and annihilation of his founder, he would have been a puppet president, it was Shittu that picked him up started collaborating with him, Kanikwu stated.http://shippingposition.com.ng/article/anlca-lampoons-nagaff-areffn-others-over-practitioners%E2%80%99-fees