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The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), has accused its consultant, SW Global, of non-disclosure of revenue generated from the Practitioners Operating Fees (POF), sparking concerns over transparency and accountability in the fund management.
This development was communicated by the Council’s Registrar, Mr Kingsley Igwe, during a press conference which held at the Council’s headquarters in Lagos on Tuesday.
While the CRFFN operating Act empowers the Council as the foremost regulatory body for freight forwarding in Nigeria saddled with the responsibility of entrenching standardisation in freight forwarding practice in Nigeria through issuance of licenses and registration and to support capacity building for continuous professionals development of practitioners, POF represents the major source of funding for the Council.
The POF sharing formula – 20% goes to CRFFN, 20% for the technical partners involved in the collection, SW Global, 25% allotted as Internally Generated Revenue for the federal government and 35% for the declarant (freight forwarder).
However, the lack of transparency in the management of the POF revenue has raised questions about the Council’s ability to regulate and manage the freight forwarding industry and its resources effectively.
After about five years of its collection and a glimmer of hope for critical stakeholders to claim their dividends in 2023, the amount generated thus far and the payment of dividends seems elusive.
With renewed call for the scrapping of the POF and a recent court rulling exempting Customs Licensed Agents from paying the POF, more concerns have been raised as the Council’s Registrar accused the consulting firm saddled with the responsibility of collecting the POF of non disclosure of the amount collected so far.
Igwe explained that the process ought to be transparent with stakeholders having knowledge of the revenue generated but the continued lack of disclosure by the consultancy firm casts a mysterious atmosphere around the fund.
“As a matter of fact, these fees collection are not directly under the control of the Council. We engaged a consultant. The consultant is in the best position to give us a clear a count of how much they have collected on POF.
“As we speak, the Council does not have that figure and we have been demanding for it from these consultants and they have not been transparent enough to declare to us how much they have collected to let the public know how much they have collected from POF because it is not supposed to be a secret,” embattled Igwe said.
Without knowing the state and the amount generated from the POF collection thus far while still pushing for continued payment from stakeholders, skepticism is brewing on the capacity of CRFFN to steer the wheel of Nigeria’s Freight Forwarding body.
