National Single Widow Project : Tinubu Ignores CRFFN

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

The status of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) played up again poignantly last week as President Ahmed Tinubu is believed to have left out the controversial agency under the marine and blue economy ministry during a crucial meeting the president had with critical stakeholders.

As a result, the federal government inadvertently also failed to carry along the all important freight forwarding subsector, a development that has stirred up further questions on the legitimacy of the CRFFN which being a professional self regulating group was politically steered out of its path during its formation and made a department of the federal government.

It is instructive that whilst the misnomer has continually hunted CRFFN and its managers, making it look like orphan, beggarly and without the vibrancy it was expected to deliver upon formation, the Council as it is also simply called, appeared to have wrestled with identity crisis all its life, as players make fun of it as a lost, illegitimate entity.

This label is not lost on industry players as the federal ministry of marine and blue economy and the President Tinubu led cabinet comfortably left the CRFFN and practitioners it represented out of the first ever presidential engagement to fine tune the nation’s Single Window Project held last week in Abuja.

Nonetheless, freight forwarding groups and leading voices have carpeted the minister of marine and blue economy, Adegboyega Oyetola for ignoring the  important subsector, even as some who think that the development was an avoidable slip, have asked him to either sack his handlers or else, to watch his advisers closely and hence be able to identify those with official prejudices.

Reacting, irrepressible and vocal industry activists and resource person, Dr Eugene Nweke described the omission of practitioners as a mark of official disrespect for operators and players, lamenting that the Federal Government’s attitude at looking down on players in the freight logistics chain is unbecoming.

The former President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) notes that freight forwarders exclusion from the Single Window engagement is a further demonstration that the Federal Government do not appreciate nor value the contributions of the freight forwarders in their fiscal and monetary policy formulations, which according to him, is usually responsible for repeat policy somersault in the industry.

“It is heartbreaking to note that, a National Single Widow steering committee was inaugurated without the CRFFN nominating a representative of the freight logistics services providers.

“This leaves room to appreciate the level at which this group of essential services providers are being neglected in the nation, but will be required during emergency situations like it happened during COVID-19.

“Again, the relevance of CRFFN in the present industry facets agitates the minds of practitioners.

It is the same manner they don’t appreciate nor value the contributions of the freight forwarders in their fiscal and monetary policy formulations, which ends up in somersault”, he said

President Tinubu inaugurated the National Single Window Committee at the Presidential Villa Abuja on Tuesday, incorporating egg-heads drawn from representatives of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Marine and Blue Economy, Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Trade and Investment and the Federal Inland Revenue Service.

Others represented in the committee are the Nigerian Customs Service, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, Central Bank of Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON),  Nigerian Maritime Administration on Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).

The policy encapsulated under the National Single Window Steering Committee is designed to explore real-time digital trade compliance. Among other things, the  National Single Window project is expected to facilitate a paperless trade volume of $ 2.7 billion to the country.

Emphasing the importance of National Single Window, President Tinubu said that the country cannot afford to lose an estimated $4 billion annually to bureaucracy, delays and corruption.

He further noted that it was time for Nigeria to join the ranks of countries like Singapore, Korea, Kenya and Saudi Arabia that have experienced significant improvement in trade efficiency after implementing a single window system.

He expressed optimism that the new project will reinvigorate the nation’s participation in cargo movement as well optimize her participation in inter-African trade.