CRFFN to regularise practitioners’ fee to boost revenue

Alhaji Abubakar Tsanni, the Chairman of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria, says the council will regularise the Practitioners’ Operating Fee to boost its revenue base.
Tsanni told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Saturday that the era of an association’s bigwig appropriating what was due to the council was over.
He said a committee has been set up to harmonise the collection of the fee.
The CRFFN chairman said that the agency came on board with various reforms to streamline the industry.
According to him, the fee which has been a subject of internal rivalry within the professional associations will now be appropriated to shore up the Federal Government’s revenue base.
He said: “We are a revenue generating council and it will be a slight on us all if linkages are allowed within our purview; hence the need for every hand to be on the deck to regularise the system.
“The reconstitution of the council’s board at this time is to bring about several reforms that will reposition the sector to be in tandem with the Federal Government’s policy of Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria.
“It is regrettable that the practitioners have been subjected to the whims and caprices of other agencies and operators.
“With the coming on board of the council, policies will be streamlined to sustain public confidence.”
Tsanni said that the council would come down heavily on unlicensed practitioners, saying that only those legally-recognised would be allowed into the ports.
He added: “The Act setting up the CRFFN gave the council the mandate to regulate the practice of freight forwarding in Nigeria.”