Mr Emmanuel Jime, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) says the council will partner the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS) to ensure professionalism in the council.
Jime said this when the executive of ICS, led by its Chairman, Dr Chris Ebare, paid him a courtesy visit at the council’s headquarters in Lagos on Thursday.
According to Jime, the institute of chartered shipbrokers has skills relevant to the industry.
“Shippers council as an institution is knowledge driven because the nature of the functions and mandate we exercise requires that we will have a knowledge based agency.
“This is because unless we approach the industry from the point of knowledge, then we are not actually able to regulate it well.
“So, whatever we need to do to enhance our understanding of the workplace, to be able to perform regulatory roles, must be encouraged,” he said.
The council boss urged Ebare to discuss with the head of human resources desk to fine tune the modalities for the training.
Jime noted that he was conversant with the institute’s intermediatry and negotiating roles, and its benefits to the shipping industry, hence partnership between the NSC and institute was desirable.
“If for instance I want to buy a ship, I need someone who has the skills to be able to perform the negotiation that will lead to my ability to get one and likewise in chartering a ship,” he said.
Also, Mr Sesan Ajayi, Vice Chairman, ICS, noted that the council as a port regulator needed continuous training for its workforce.
According to Ajayi, topics are not just thrown at participants, but that they look at challenges and areas they need to add value.
“In respect of functions from the regulatory services to the advisory services, we have customised service that we can render in an in-house practical training, not open ended courses.
“After the training we do have feedback from the supervisor of those that participated in the training to know the way forward,” he said.
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Earlier, Ebare pointed out that the visit was to ensure that the council’s workforce was in tandem with what was obtainable in the world.
He noted that the meeting was a follow up to the existing relationship with the council, and to continue to guide the council aright in terms of ship development, operational management and others.
He said a major problem faced ICS was that most maritime industry players did not make use of experts in the country.
According to him, it is expected that before a ship is bought, experts will be consulted to advise on the position, sea worthiness of the vessel, but that is not the case.
“Presently, the federal government sells wrecked vessels in the country without the advice of the chartered ship brokers unlike what is obtainable in other countries.
“We wrote to the ministry of justice on this and urged them to advice government on the best practice,” he said.
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