A former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr. Hassan Bello, has underscored the need for the Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Act to be strengthened to give license to freight forwarders.

Bello made the call on Saturday at the maiden graduation ceremony on Freight Forwarding and Supply Chain Management in Lagos organized by CRFFN and the Federation International of Freight Forwarding Association (FIATA).

According to Bello, the practice of freight forwarding is very important as far as the logistics chain is concerned, being an economic activity that will help the country.

“I will like to see few changes in the CRFFN Act. The act should be strong so that it influences license exclusively to freight forwarders.

“Freight forwarding practice is the bigger picture as they can operate ships, large warehouses, be responsible for trucking and others.

“We want freight forwarding practice to take strategic place in the economic mold that we should all be proud of in Nigeria .

“The Federal Ministry of Transportation has shown a lot of attention to this practice,” he said.

He urged the freight forwarders to bring professionalism to bear and not talk about closing the port whenever there are issues.

“Freight forwarders should never talk about closing the port. They should be negotiating issues of freight, tariff, tax; that is their role, not going to the port to look for expected time for cargoes,” he said.

Bello also advocated digitalization of port processes, noting that this could be done from ‘ the confines of ones home, hence reducing corruption at the port.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, noted that with over 400 people graduating, he was sure that freight forwarding would change for the best in the country.

Amaechi, represented by Dr Magdalene Ajani, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, noted that inspite of their experience in the industry, the training would open their eyes to real issues in freight forwarding in Nigeria and the world at large.

“Having gone through the training and mixing it up with the experience at workplace, they can go back now and say to themselves that they are doing it right and well.

“I sat down watching the graduates, some above the age of 50 but they humbled themselves to go for the training, not just for money but to ensure that freight forwarding business is where it ought to be, having standards,” he said.

also, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, noted that gradually, quacks would be removed from the industry and sanity restored with the new way of training freight forwarders for business.

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Earlier, Mr. Samuel Nwakohu, the Registrar of CRFFN, noted that the council activated an agenda, which was to promote freight forwarding as a career by ensuring its integration into tertiary education curriculum in Nigeria.

He added that this came to be because nurturing the CRFFN and ensuring that its registered practitioners are professionals, had been a challenging one, coming from the background of stereotyping.

“The average practitioner of old, saw himself/herself as a ‘clearing agent’, whose responsibility begins and ends at the various terminals in the ports.

“This is the narrative that the CRFFN has succeeded in changing. Today, freight forwarding is no longer restricted to the ports. It is a long chain,” he said.

Nwakohu said that CRFFN was determined to continue to create an evolving crop of educated and empowered practitioners who could hold their own anywhere in the world.

The accredited training institutions include the Redeemers’ University, Osun; Benue State University, Multimix Academy and Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Adamawa.

Others include the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Akwa-Ibom; Federal University of Technology Owerri, Imo; Nigeria Institute of Transport Technology(NITT) Zaria and University of Lagos.

The Global Maritime Academy, Warri; Umaru Ali Shinkafi Polytechnic, Sokoto; Certified Institute of Shipping, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Sydney Gateway Ltd are also accredited.

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Also a given approval include the International Maritime Training Centre, Lagos; Fortune Business School, Lagos; Living Earth Nigeria Foundation, Port Harcourt and Emdee Shipping and Maritime College, Lagos.

150 persons graduated with the Executive Professional Diploma and 125 persons with FIATA Diploma, among others.