Transport Institute Introduces Courses On Freight Forwarding

Academic courses in freight forwarding will begin in February 2012 at the Nigeria Institute of Transport Technology in Zaria, Kaduna State, Registrar of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Mr. Mike Jukwe, has said.

Jukwe, who disclosed this in Abuja on Sunday while fielding questions at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) interview session, said the programme would start with a six-month certificate course.

He said that the initiative was part of the efforts by the council to reposition the practice of freight forwarding through academic and professional training of practitioners.

Jukwe said that available statistics indicated that most practitioners were either unskilled or lacked the basic academic and professional qualification necessary for the practice freight forwarding.

“There is no institution anywhere in this country that offers training in freight forwarding.

“The council has already put in the mould for certificate in freight forwarding; this is because after we’ve carried out the first registration, we discovered that most of the members from our maiden register of freight forwarders for the first time that it has been compiled in this country are school certificate holders at the highest level.

“So by next year, February, we should be starting a programme on certificate in freight forwarding; that certificate in freight forwarding will last for six months and we will progress from there to diploma programme, advanced diploma and post graduate and we are working in close collaboration with the NITT Zaria.

The registrar said that the council was also in discussion with a university in the United Kingdom for the training of manpower for higher academic and professional qualifications.

He said that CRFFN as a body was working tirelessly to ensure that academic courses in freight forwarding were offered in Nigerian universities in the long run through its collaboration with the university in the UK.

The Registrar said areas of transaction charges and practicing fees were fashioned out by the ministry so tht the council would be able to have enough finds for maintenance and to also to  contribute to the federation account.