POF Collection: CRFFN Should Take a Lesson from Nigerian Customs—Barr Ovien

…Says ANLCA Leaders In CRFFN Have Failed, Playing To the Gallery

By DAPO OLAWUNI

Even as the controverey surrounding the collection of Practitioners Operations Fee (POF) by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) at the port thickens, Secretary of the Tin Can Chapter of ANLCA, Barr Michael Ovien has urged the council to learn stakeholders relations tactics from the Nigeria Customs Service.

Barr Ovien in a chat with DAILY TREND NEWS last week blamed the leaders of ANLCA in the CRFFN as the major cause of the woes faced by the practisioners.

He lamented that ANLCA since 2018 has not enjoyed any meaningful representation in the Council, adding that the so called leaders of ANLCA failed to defend the freight forwarding profession which they are part of.

Barr Ovien condemned the collection of the POF at the port, saying that CRFFN is putting the cart before the horse. According to him, the Council failed to carryout stakeholders se sensitization and awareness just like the Nigeria Customs Service does for all licensed Customs Agents before renewal of practising license yearly.

“The CRFFN should carryout a visit to all offices of freight forwarders and see how they have keyed into the CRFFN system, this must be done so that other people do not get money belonging to someone else”

“To be a licensed practitioner with the Nigeria Customs Service for example, you must have a standard office that is well set up with necessary gadgets.
Customs carryout evaluation in March of every year before renewal of that practising license”

“CRFFN collecting POF fee on every cargo leaving the port is absurd, a lawyer does not pay Practitioners fee on every single client he represents in court, also, a doctor does not pay Practitioners fee on every patient he treats”

“Our problem in this industry is the so called leaders in the CRFFN. ANLCA is playing to the gallery, the Vice-President of ANLCA is the team leader of CRFFN’s committee on education and strategy, if this is so, he should have looked into it properly, and find out why agents are being double charged”

“Already, we pay annual subscriptions to the CRFFN, is this not our Practitioners fee? They are now collecting positioning of containers fee.

“A lot of sanitisation must still be done on the POF because we are just coming out of Covid-19, the Covid-19 has really taken the time, the ongoing construction of Tin Can Island Road is also affecting us, a lot of clearing agents have been put into hardship, and this hardship has not left them”

This is why we wonder why we cannot have the listening ear of the CRFFN to suspend the POF for now, and allow normalcy to return to the industry” he said

Barr Ovien argued that if the practising freight forwarders in the CRFFN cannot defend the associations and the profession they are representing, it means they have failed and the profession cannot be better.

According to him “These so called leaders are now the ones frustrating the efforts of other young ones coming up in the industry. Government does not just spring up, it is people that form that government and act on behalf of government”

“If you are representing an organisation, you should be able to feel the pain of the people within that organisation”

“I blame the Registrar of CRFFN because he is a lawyer, he should have known that for you to be a member of CRFFN, we register with about N62,000, we are renewing yearly with N35,000, when you want to register a company, and register your staff again, you know how much it would run into” he said