The Shippers Association Lagos State has threatened to drag the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria to court over the collection of Practitioners Operating Fee.
In an interview with Financial Street in Lagos on Monday, the President of SALS, Mr Jonathan Nicol, described the collection as illegal even as he warned the council to stay off the cargoes of the association’s members.
He said, “Every organisation has its practitioners’ fee – the Guild of Engineers, Medical Association, Nigerian Customs Service and others; so why is CRFFN’s different? Maybe the nomenclature they used is wrong; every year, people pay their practitioners fee, and without the renewal of licence, one cannot practise.”
The SALS boss said, “We had gone to the council to discuss this issue with them, but we were told that they are not connecting cargo to the fee but now they are doing so, and this is not acceptable. How much are the shippers making that everybody wants them to bear every brunt? This is so unfortunate.
“CRFFN cannot say that they are collecting practitioners’ fee on consignment because they are laying a very bad precedent. Tomorrow, the Nigerian Medical Association will say practitioners’ fee is per person that comes to the hospital. That is what it is, and what makes it more complicated is that they are saying if N1,000 or N2,000 is not paid, freight forwarders will not be allowed to carry their container.”
