The Freight Anti-Corruption Vanguards of Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (FAVFFN) has reaffirmed its readiness to confront entrenched malpractices and rising extortion allegedly perpetrated by government officials across the nation’s ports.
National Chairman of FAVFFN, Dr. Increase Uche, made the declaration on Friday during a press briefing held at the NAGAFF headquarters in Lagos.
According to him, a recent sector-wide assessment revealed that corruption continues to thrive within the cargo clearance value chain because stakeholders have focused only on surface-level symptoms while ignoring the deep-rooted structural causes.
“Our assessment of the roles of economic operators, government agencies and service providers shows that addressing only the symptoms of corruption while leaving its root causes untouched has allowed negative trends to persist,” he said.
Dr. Uche explained that the Freight Anti-Corruption Vanguards have been formally re-established to strengthen integrity, accountability and ethical conduct across Nigeria’s international trade and logistics systems. He disclosed that the group will operate through five strategic pillars:
Public awareness and education ; Ethical compliance
Strategic partnerships ; Confidential reporting mechanisms
Policy reform and advocacy.
He added that part of the renewed plan includes targeted enlightenment programmes for young and emerging freight forwarders across various Customs and logistics associations.
To achieve meaningful impact, Dr. Uche called on the Nigeria Customs Service, the lead agency in cargo clearance and trade facilitation, to extend full cooperation to the Vanguards as they intensify their anti-corruption campaign.
He noted that the strengthened mandate follows a highly impactful one-day sensitization and capacity-building workshop jointly organized with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in Lagos.
Dr. Uche assured that FAVFFN will continue to collaborate with regulatory agencies, industry stakeholders and anti-corruption institutions to restore integrity and efficiency to Nigeria’s port operations.
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