The executive committee of the newly-created All Ports Unified Freight Forwarding Practitioners Association, led by their President, Prince Mike Okorie, paid a courtesy visit to the Commissioner of Police Western Command, Apapa, Lagos at the weekend.
Speaking during the visit, Okorie expressed hope that the relationship between the new association and port police would foster synergy and trade in the country.
According to him, “As law abiding citizens, we deem it fit to pay you this courtesy call because there is need for synergy between us and the police and as law abiding citizens, we will do our best to ensure that we abide by the law, since you have given us a level playing ground to work.”
He said the primary role of the association was to promote growth, unity and welfare of freight forwarding practitioners in Nigeria.
On his part, the Commissioner of Police Lagos Port, Mr Muhammad Uba Kura, assured APUFFPA of 100 per cent cooperation as long as they ensured best practices within the ambit of the
law.
He urged the association to live by the standards and ensure discipline among its members.
“The ultimate aim of any association is to ensure discipline in the association, also you must ensure that members live in peace, as this is very important for the survival of any association.
“You must also learn to relate well with other stakeholders in the industry, we need to get intelligence information from you as agents that operate within the port,” he said.
He expressed gratitude to the association for deeming it fit to pay him a courtesy visit and wished them success in their endeavours.
Speaking with The Point during the visit, Okorie said the body was registered three years ago for the purpose of solving problems faced by agents
“This body was registered three years ago for the purpose of solving problems faced by agents . We have been trying to do some underground work on how to synergise with other associations to move the freight forwarding industry forward.
“We are in time to solve the problems of agents because it seems like other associations have gone to sleep, it is worrisome that most of them only go for their own work, they don’t care about the industry or their fellow agents
“In the ports now, after Customs has released a cargo, you would see about five Federal Operations Unit checkpoints of Customs on the road. Immediately you capture your consignment, they put various alerts on it including headquarters alert, valuation, query and amendment alerts and you have to go one by one to ensure that you clear them and yet custom is one body. This is some of the problems we have come to sort out and see how we can be of help to the agents.
“We have written to other association, where they have stopped is where we want to continue. We have written to ANLCA and NAGAFF for a courtesy visit, we are not enemies, we just want to synergise with them to move the industry forward. There might be problems but I don’t foresee any because, already, they are somewhere above us.
“We are on the process of getting registered with the Council of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria. We have paid the first debit note about two years ago, we have written to them and we are waiting for their reply.
“Conveying a cargo from TICT to Ikorodu was formally N350,000, but now we are paying N650,000. This has put so many agents on an edge with their importers
“We have written to the Presidency, the Nigerian Port Authority , Shippers Council, that they should give us time to manage the gridlock on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and the Western Avenue, we are still waiting for their reply because we have what it takes to make it work,” he told our Correspondent.
On his part, the Secretary General of the association, Mr Sylvester Sunday, said” “Some of the bonded terminals where we drop empty containers, they end up collecting up to N100,000 from us which is very wrong, even with your dropping authority, you are not supposed to pay a dime, but unfortunately the system is forcing us into this.
“If we stand back and fold our hands watching all these things, it would run the industry down completely.
“If you are creating holding bays and already dropped containers have not been moved to the port, we would end up remaining the same.
“When ships come to Nigerian ports, they don’t go back with empty containers, they only go back with exports, if you go to APMT or TICT, you would see a lot of empty containers stacked for more than one year, if these containers are not returned, how do we drop new ones.”
