CRFFN Board Members Intervene to Stop Strike at Ports
*Meet APMT officials, plan meeting with others Monday
By Onyinye Apeh
A team of board members of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) Thursday intervened to stop the planned strike by freight forwarders protesting against the failure of terminal operators to grant waivers on demurrage and storage charges.
The board members of CRFFN, including the President of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Increase Uche and the Vice President of the Association of Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farinto, General Secretary of ANLCA, Alhaji Mukaila Abdulaziz, CRFFN Chairman, Monitoring Committee on Compliance, Mr Timothy Awogbemi and two others, had met with a top management staff of APMT who was said to have intervened in restoring areas in the documentation of agents where compliance with the waiver on demurrage and storage charges was not observed.
Uche who spoke to SHIPPING DAY said he is sure that freight forwarders who will go to APMT today will notice a difference in terms of compliance with the NPA directive on demurrage and storage charges.
He also said the CRFFN board members will by Monday visit other terminal operators to ensure that they complied with waivers on demurrage and storage charges as earlier directed by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Agents had Thursday moved to embark on a warning strike, but NAGAFF President argued that freight forwarders cannot afford to embark on any strike now, adding that it will erode the gains so far recorded in the clearing goods at this period of the ravaging coronavirus.
He also said such action would appear as if freight forwarders do not appreciate the efforts of some of the agencies, including the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and CRFFN, to ensure that goods are cleared at the ports even at this period of the global crisis of COVID-19.
Uche however said the terminal operators and shipping companies need to be called to order for their impunity in the industry.
He said that if the relevant authorities had sanctioned the service providers with severe sanction for flouting directives, it would have served as a deterrent in the industry.
“When agencies issue directive to these shipping companies or terminal operators, there is the need to monitor compliance. If the directive is being flouted, the service providers involved should sanctioned”, he said.
Before the visit to the APMT, the General Secretary of ANLCA, Alhaji Mukaila Abdulaziz, told newsmen that his association was planning a warning strike to protest the non-compliance to the NPA directive on demurrage and storage charges.
The NPA had in a statement directed all terminal operators to suspend demurrage charges at the ports for 14 days beginning from April 13.
With the end of the 14 weeks on April 27, NPA is expected to also issue another directive for another two weeks with the extension of the lockdown.
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