Withdrawal of service: Shipping companies shun CRFFN’s peace meeting with freight forwarders

Representatives of shipping companies in Nigeria expected to attend a peace meeting called by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) with freight forwarders on Friday shunned the meeting.

Freight forwarders under the aegis of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) had last week served a notice of withdrawal of service to the shipping companies to protest what they described as unbridled extortion and high-handedness.

They had given a two-week ultimatum from October 25th to November 10th, 2021 for their grievances to be addressed or withdraw their services.

In a bid to avert the planned withdrawal of service, CRFFN, which is the regulatory agency of the freight forwarding practice had fixed a meeting for Friday with the shipping companies and other major industry stakeholders to address some of the issues raised by the freight forwarders, but the representatives of the shipping companies failed to attend the meeting.

Registrar, CRFFN, Barrister Sam Nwakohu, while speaking at the meeting expressed displeasure over the absence of the shipping companies despite being notified of the meeting.

Noting that the presence of the representatives of the shipping companies was needed to address issues raised by the freight forwarders, Nwakohu appealed to the agents to shelve their planned withdrawal of service as the country cannot afford any disruption in economic activities at the port.

He assured that the meeting will be called again until the Council is able to harmonize the warring factions.

“Economic activities are key to revenue generation in the country. Outside oil, port activities are essential services, so the country cannot afford any disruption in the economic activities. Against the background, we looked at the issues and we felt that the best thing to do was to invite all the stakeholders from NPA to the Shippers Council, the complainants including the shipping companies.

Unfortunately, they (shipping companies) were not here today. But I didn’t want that to stall any preliminary discussions. That was why we went and considered each and every issue they raised from the agents’ points of view. The meeting is not a one-day thing, it is a meeting that we take two or more sittings and by God’s grace, we should be able to resolve all the issues and everybody will go home happy.

“We will still have the opportunity to consider those issues from the point of view of the shipping companies,” he said.

Announcing the resolution of the meeting, Nwakohu said the freight  forwarders agreed to suspend the notice of withdrawal of service pending further engagement with the shipping companies.

National Coordinator of the NAGAFF 100 percent Compliance team, Ibrahim Tanko, said the shipping companies deliberately boycotted the meeting as no excuse was given for their failure to attend.

Tanko, who lamented the operational challenges agents are faced with at the port said none of the port industry regulators are ready to address their concerns.

He said following the intervention of CRFFN and the promise to call for another meeting, they are going to extend the notice of the planned strike for two weeks to give the shipping companies a benefit of doubt.

He warned that if at the expiration of the extension, nothing is done to address their concerns, they would have no choice but to call for total withdrawal of service.

“I am sad because nobody is ready to answer our pains. You can imagine a Registrar of CRFFN inviting shipping companies to a meeting but not one of them is here. I also notice that there is a power tussle between CRFFN and the Nigeria Shippers Council. If there is no power tussle, why would the Shippers’ Council invite us for a meeting on the same day CRFFN also had a meeting with us.

“We will give them the benefit of doubt and watch and see. Starting from Monday, we are going to give them two weeks. We are going to extend the notice of strike for two weeks to hear from them but if at the end of the day, nothing is still done, we will still go back to the withdrawal of service.

Other resolutions reached at the meeting include “That CRFFN, NPA, Shippers Council, Customs collaborate and look at the problems that are raised by the freight forwarders.

“That freight forwarders should and must have patient with the emergence of new technology which may pose a short-term hiccups but will gradually fade away as they adjust to the system,

“It was also agreed that charges should not be passed to freight forwarders by shipping companies as a result of network downtime.

“On the issue of holding bay, NPA should look into it and ensure that freight forwarders are not unduly punished for inadequate holding bays and transfer of containers without the consent of the consignee should also be looked it,”