Shippers under the aegis of Shippers Association Lagos State (SALS) have tasked President Muhammad Buhari to work more on infrastructural development, especially at the ports in his second tenure.
The President of SALS, Rev. Jonathan Nicol, who said this in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week, maintained that the association will continue to harp on the need for reduction of the cost of doing business at Nigerian ports.
He condemned the idea of government only focusing on making profit and generating revenue from shippers instead of talking about the decay in infrastructure.
Nicol told our correspondent that, “we are going to give them target, first of all we will insist that infrastructures in the ports have to be in place. We will continue to tell them because we are not seeing anything from the government as at now. We will continue to tell them to reduce the cost of doing business right from NPA down the line because I don’t see the reason why the government should be in a hurry to pick all the money from shippers”.
“The purpose of doing business is to make profit and if the infrastructures are not there it will be difficult. As you know, Nigerian businessmen especially those in the shipping sector are suffering a lot in other for them to break even. That is why our industry are not doing well because the cost of doing business are absolutely abnormal and if you face all these problems you still have the government and their policies to face”, he lamented.
Nicol, reiterated that the association will also continue to push for the meaningful adjustment of government policies to attract investment in the sector.
“We will continue to see that the trade policies are adjusted meaningfully to attract progress and investment because if the investor will have to struggle to get back his capital then there is a problem”
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