By Kenneth Jukpor
The President of Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Nigeria, Barr. (Mrs.) Mfon Usoro has lamented that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has lost focus and derailed from its major goals.
Usoro, who was speaking with MMS Plus during an exclusive chat yesterday, stated that CRFFN was modelled to function like the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) or the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
Her words: “Industry watchers, including me, are saddened by the inability of freight agents in Nigeria to focus on achieving the major goals of the CRFFN Act. The aim was to uplift the practice and standard delivery of forwarding agents, position Nigerian forwarding companies for growth as the go-to freight or logistics companies that will dominate the market.”
“Rather, I observe inordinate interest and energies devoted to the politics of associations and positions in the Council. I observe a conspiracy to convert the CRFFN into what it was not created to be. The CRFFN by its Act is an industry self regulator not an agency of the Federal Govt in the same way COREN or the NBA are not Govt agencies.”
According to her, the CRFFN Act follows the precedent of COREN yet member companies of COREN have prospered and are successfully checking the industry against unfair competition from foreign consultants while freight agents have confined themselves to infightings.
Usoro posited that the crucial move to resolve these issues is fidelity to the letter of the law, admission of and ceding of power to young, reasonably educated persons with demonstrable leadership in leading freight companies.
