NAGAFF Tasks Freight Forwarders On Genuine Declaration Of Imported Goods

Coordinator of 100 Per Cent Compliance Team of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko, has tasked freight forwarders on the need for a genuine declaration of imported goods. Tanko made the appeal in a statement issued in Lagos on Friday.

NAGAFF’s 100 Per Cent Compliance Team was established to ensure compliance with government regulations in the nation’s ports. Tanko noted that freight forwarders making genuine declarations would help the government to realise its revenue target.

According to him, it will not be business as usual for terminal operators, shipping companies and freight forwarders who fail to abide by government directives on ease of doing business policy. “We are campaigning and trying to reach out to people for them to understand the needs of the compliance team. “People are seeing us as those causing confusion or whistleblowers, but with our recent picketing of two bounded terminals, they now know that we mean business in what we are doing,” he said.

Tanko, while reflecting on the team’s achievements, urged freight forwarders to always do the right thing, insisting that the right thing had to do with 100 per cent documentation and declaration so that government would not accuse them of contributing to revenue loss. Chief of Staff of the Compliance Team, Berth Okeke, noted that the group was ready to take the assignment to a higher level, saying: “We expect all members to comply to government directives so that businesses will move smoothly in the port.”

Also, National Secretary, NAGAFF Compliance Team, Chukwuemeka Iwegbuna, said the team would focus on advocacy and the consolidation of what they had already achieved.