APFFLON: There is Nothing Wrong With Foreigners Practicing Freight Forwarding At Nigerian Ports

…Reveals How ENDSARS Protest Made Mockery of Border Closure

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The President of Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON) Otunba Frank Ogunojemite has said that there is nothing wrong with foreigners practicing freight forwarding at Nigerian ports.

This is coming despite cries from freight forwarding practitioners and associations, including Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) clamouring for indigenisation of the practice by government because foreigners have taken over their jobs.

Lebanese, Chinese have allegedly flooded the Customs long room in Apapa Customs and the CPC at Tin Can Island Port.

In a chat with DAILY TREND NEWS at the weekend, Otunba Ogunojemite advised Nigerian freight forwarders to brace up for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which he said would bring more foreigners to practice in Nigeria.

He urged freight forwarders to develop themselves and expand their tentacles, and they should not rely on the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) for anything.

On the indigenisation of freight forwarding practice, the APFFLON President argued that a foreigner can practice at the port if he has gotten his residential permits.

He also noted that a lot of the Lebanese seen at Apapa port are actually having Nigerian passports and that many of them were born and bred in Kano State.

“We all know about the indigenisation decree which states that foreigners cannot practice except they have an indigenous partner, the law is still applicable”

“The only thing is that Nigerian government is not always effective in their policy implementation, there is nothing wrong for a foreigner to practice freight forwarding in this country, but what is the role the person would a play? The foreigner might be an administrator or an IT person, it all depends on the scope you are looking at it”

“For example, in England, we all practice freight forwarding, but the question is do you have the residential permit that allows you to practice?
A Lebanese that is born in Kano State, you would think he is a foreigner, but he is no longer a foreigner, they are holding Nigerian passports, if you see them at the Lagos port, you would think they are foreigners, so also, other countries have taken the citizenship of Nigeria”

“I also hold the citizenship of other countries and I practice there.
Look at America and Britain in their elections, we have a lot of Nigerians in their Senate, how many foreigners do we have in our own Senate today?”

Ogunojemite said that what Nigerian freight forwarders need to do is to develop themselves and extend their tentacles, get exposed and get educated.

He said “There are some people that cannot operate the computer today, they cannot check email, those days when they started, these technologies were not there, they carry a lot of books around, but today, the Nigeria Customs Service has upgraded with the NICIS and all of that”

“The individual freight forwarders should update themselves.
If we begin to rely on CRFFN, there is nothing they can do, so far so good, we cannot see anything they have achieved”

He said that the AfCFTA is for Africans, and that it goes beyond the west coast alone.

According to him, if the federal government fails to handle the agreement properly, Nigeria would suffer most, she would end up being a dumping ground for other countries.

On the border closure, he said it is unfair that federal government opened up the borders to Dangote Cement and selected others.

He also observed that the recent ENDSARS protest has made mockery of the whole essence of the border closure.

“The motive behind the border closure has been nullified by the EndSars protest, because we did our investigations around the land borders and realised that there were no officers on the road, they were at the land borders but they were not on the road”

“This further made us to go to the market and we found out that the price of foreign rice has gone down, this shows that a lot of it has been entering the country”

“So, if there is protest, it should not affect our borders, the security of our Borders should not be porous as it is.
As far as we are concerned, the concept of the border closure is in vein” he said