Amidst forwarders’ disquiet, CRFFN begins collection of POF fees at ports today
In line with the completion of digital integration of with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) will today, Monday, February 3, 2020, commence the collection of Practitioners Operating Fees (POF) in all seaports in Nigeria.
The resumption of the collection is coming amidst discordant voices from several port business operators including clearing agents, freight forwarders’ and others doing business at the seaports.
Before now, many stakeholders’ had complained against the fee on grounds of adding pressure on their costs of doing business, but the Registrar and Chief Executive of CRFFN, Samuel Nwakohu, had in several media chats, claimed that rather than adding more pains, POF would not only increase earnings to the government, but help in reducing costs on the side of operators as the fee regime would further streamline activities and cut off certain avoidable costs.
According to him, POF is an Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the federal government and all parties involved as the fee regime would now be fully equipped to regulate freight forwarding in the country.
He advanced that with the fee and the percentage coming to the Council, issues of underfunding would seize.
This is based on the calculation that CRFFN would be richer with more than the paltry allocation of about N2.7 million from the government every month which hardly covers overheads alone.
He claimed however, that “With that kind of situation, it became extremely difficult to run the place. POF, I am told, is one of the ways to generate revenue. For one year we have been on it, we went to ICRC to make a business case; the Federal Executive Council has approved our plan.”
