Dr. Zebullion Ikokide is the National President of the Nigeria Institute of Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers (NIFFCB). In this interview with MMS Plus, Dr. Ikokide reveals the challenges facing NIFFCB. He also addresses several other issues in the Nigerian port industry.
Excerpts:
How has the Nigeria Institute of Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers (NIFFCB) been faring?
Since the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) came in and adopted the institute as their training arm. However, following that development we have been expecting that there would be some form of subvention but up to this moment there has been nothing like that. The CRFFN is lamenting that their budgets are not been approved completely so they have been unable to do the training.
However, there is a dire need to train these agents and freight forwarders to ENSURE that there is an appreciable level of professionalism and they would assist the Customs in ensuring that the government gets the requisite revenue accruable from imports. A professional freight forwarder should know that there is no need to cut corners to avoid paying the correct duty to the government.
The problem of funding has made the NIFFCB become redundant as some universities have started doing the trainings that should have been done by the institute. We are appealing to the government to endorse the whole of CRFFN’s budget so that they can fund the institute optimally.
How was the institute coping financially before the advent of CRFFN?
Before CRFFN was established we were doing trainings individually but the state of the economy is such that nobody has enough to go for trainings. People came out in numbers to do training in the past and they were paying for it. The last training was done by the Nigeria Customs Service for freight forwarders and agents but that was a very long time ago. We have also been making efforts to get the Customs to collaborate with us to enable us continue such trainings but the efforts haven’t been productive. Customs aren’t ready to collaborate with us because they don’t recognize CRFFN. So, they haven’t been willing to disburse monies for the trainings as they did in the past.
We have demanded that CRFFN creates a special budget for us but they continue to lament that their budget is never approved fully so they don’t have funds to allocate to the institute. There ought to be a budget for training at the CRFFN which would enable the institute carry out its obligations. The Federal Government should assist us by approving the whole CRFFN budget so that they can fund the institute.
How does the Practitioners Operating Fees (POF) relate to NIFFCB?
This is one of the avenues that NIFFCB is hoping to get revenue for training. As soon as the collection of POF commences, we have been assured that some of these monies would be released to the institute to enable it continue trainings. However, this POF collection is yet to commence and there are many reasons for this. The economic situation of the nation is such that the activities at the ports are dwindling by the day. There are fewer imports today when compared to few years ago.
Meanwhile, I think it is paramount for the Federal Government to fund CRFFN with regards to the training aspects. If we announced that we want to do the training for free a lot of people would turn up. This is because deep down they have interest in their profession but the scenario changes when we ask the participants to pay. If we can get more of these freight forwarders enlightened about Customs issues then the bulk of the challenges the Customs face in their dealings with the stakeholders would be reduced drastically. These individuals would become patriotic even to do good declaration.
Officers also have to be allocated from CRFFN to work with the institute but the lack of fund has made the institute ineffective. As the President of NIFFCB, the most I can do is to continue to appeal to the Federal Government to do the needful in order to ensure that NIFFCB continues its crucial mandate of training the practitioners in freight forwarding to ensure professionalism.
How has the multiplicity of private training institutions for freight forwarding aided or marred the development of NIFFCB and how have freight forwarding associations responded to these trainings?
We have also approached the major associations like the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), but even these associations need funds to train their members. We have approached them to see if they can sponsor some of their members via scholarships or subsidize the cost of training but the challenge remains funding. How many people would they be able to train? The members of these associations are supposed to contribute to the association to make it viable but these are some of the reasons why the proposed collection of POF becomes very important. The POF can ensure that monies for such trainings are available.
Other private institutes have also taken up the responsibility to train freight forwarders like the Redeemer’s University and Benue State University, put they are all suffering from the same financial challenge. They have their satellite campus at the NAGAFF village but how many freight forwarders or agents can afford to pay for the training?
Looking at the Nigerian maritime sector as a trainer, what are the major challenges and how do we overcome them?
From my point of view, the major challenge has been training. This has been the institute’s challenge since inception and we expected the coming of CRFFN to eliminate this monetary challenge but that hasn’t been the case. The financial challenge has actually become worse because the government isn’t approving all the budget of CRFFN and aspect of training has been left to suffer.
The human element of it is that the trainers are available whilst the funds required to commence the trainings are not available. Some of us were trained by the CRFFN through FIATA, but most of the people who were trained are not working. These people are many and they are doing nothing. You can imagine the pool of human resources that we have that can be used to train freight forwarders.
Do you think CRFFN should make such trainings mandatory for freight forwarders and agents before they are licensed so as to enhance the level of professionalism that would be enhanced via such trainings?
Of course, that is the area we are targeting. However, we cannot do that without sensitizing the people adequately. We haven’t done much to sensitize the people who are to come for these trainings. The institute is insisting that we are given the opportunity to train people. People have to be aware of these trainings. Our curriculum has to be in the public domain and those who have graduated should have their certificates and expertise to show, then we can insist on such policies.
There are not enough people with good certificates that have been trained as freight forwarders and agents. So, if you bring such kind of policy how many people would remain to do business at the ports. This is an area we looking at because we want an industry where most practitioners are trained, certified by the institute and registered with CRFFN. However, we must sensitize the people to ensure that there is adequate awareness about NIFFCB, the potentials and opportunities and people must see the difference in the performance of those who have been trained.
The good thing is that there is enough manpower to carry out these trainings. We only need the financial support to transform the freight forwarding business into a more refined and appreciable discipline in Nigeria.
Last year we had the amalgamation of Port Facility Security Officers (PFSO) in Nigeria. How has the Forum kicked-off?
It has been successful and the sensitization has been on. Recently, the US Coast Guard came to Nigeria and most of the terminals who failed the test last year passed it this time around. The sensitization for PFSOs has been so good and the national forum was created to ensure this knowledge about security is available so that things can be at the standard that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has prescribed.
We did another national meeting in Port Harcourt recently. The inaugural one was in Lagos last year and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has been very supportive as they have seen that the forum is bent on complying with the security standards as prescribed in the ISPS Code.
A Joint Council of Seaport Truck Owner has increased the freight rate by over 50%. How would this affect the port industry and the nation at large?
We must not compromise on safety, quality and standards in this country. We shouldn’t sympathize with people because of the present economic recession in the nation we won’t get things right. If their outcry and increase in fares is as a result of the speed limiters and others safety gadgets that the Federal Road Safety Corps has demanded then this is wrong.
They ought to comply with these regulations. How can rickety trucks that already charge ridiculous prices be talking about increase? If we start to compromise things because of the economic situation or because some people need to meet up then we won’t make progress.
What is your take on the restriction of importation of vehicles via the Nigerian land borders?
The Federal Government shouldn’t be bothered about such efforts; they should be able to say that the importation of vehicles should be new ones. They can enforce this by reducing the rate of import duty on new vehicles to 5% while they could increase the duty on used vehicles to 70%. The government has not done this so people would prefer the trade of used vehicles because it is cheaper. We should discourage the importation of used vehicles by increasing the duty.
Give ridiculous low duty for new vehicles and very high duty for used vehicles and in few years the nation would be flooded with new vehicles. People in the business of importing used vehicles would simply migrate to importing new ones and the number of vehicles they import would increase which would mean more money for the government.
By Kenneth Jukpor
