For many years, the Nigeria Shippers’ Council has been taunted as a toothless bulldog, an ineffective agency that is at the mercy of those it is supposed to regulate.
Created originally to protect the interests of Nigerian shippers, the Council struggled to tame the lions who terrorise the shippers. It is true that the Council had tried severally to get the shipping line agencies and the terminal operators to obey the rules of the game in Nigeria. It is true that it has been difficult to enforce its own enabling laws.
Not even the gazette that made the Council to effectively assume the role of the Economic Regulator of the port, could change the perception that stakeholders have about the Nigerian Shippers’ Council.
Desirous of a new beginning, it had pursued the dream of pushing the National Transport Commission (NTC) through. The plan was to get the National Assembly to pass the Bill, even after it had been rejected by the Presidency.
We recall that the NTC Bill had sought to establish the National Transport Commission as a regulator of all activities undertaken in Nigeria’s transport sector. The NTC was primed to operate as an independent regulator to promote multimodal transport and boost private sector participation in the provision of transport services. The Nigerian Shippers Council was being promoted to transmute to the Commission.
However, in 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari declined to assent to the Bill, which the Senate had passed in March 2018. The Presidency gave reasons for the decision.
President Buhari refused to assent the Bill on three grounds including the removal of safety issues because the bill is purely economic regulations. Secondly, the President also said that the royalty to be paid to the commission as source of funds which was pegged at 10 percent should be reduced to five percent. Thirdly, Buhari also asked the National Assembly to look at the freight stabilisation fee, which was put at three percent to be reduced to one percent just like it is in the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) Act.
The first official hint that the National Transport Commission Bill was officially dead, came from the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Shippers’ Council; Barrister Pius Akutah, sometime in March this year.
At a media parley, Barrister Akutah declared that the Council’s attention is squarely on another legislation, which is aimed at repealing the Nigerian Shippers’ Council Act Cap N133 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004, rather than pursuing the controversial NTC bill.
The new Bill; the “Nigerian Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency Bill” has scaled a mandatory Second Reading at the House of Representatives, and it was recently subjected to a public hearing at the National Assembly.
According to its sponsors, the Nigerian Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency Bill 2023, is aimed at repealing the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) Act Cap N133 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) and introducing the Nigerian Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency Act to fully empower the Council for its regulatory role.
Instructively, it is being pushed by the Chairman of the House Committee on Shipping Services, Hon. Abdussamad Dasuki. It is also being solidly backed by the Speaker; Hon. Tajudden Abbas.
While presenting the bill at the House, Dasuki highlighted the historical context and emphasized that the government designated the Nigerian Shippers’ Council as the Port Economic Regulator in 2015.
Dasuki had shared insights from the government’s gazette of 2015, emphasizing the objectives of creating an effective regulatory regime for Nigerian ports following their concession. The scope of the regulation covered all port stakeholders, controlling tariffs, rates, charges, and other related economic services.
From all indications, the promoters of the new Shipping Bill, had seen the hurdles which the NTC failed to cross and which led to its premature death, and they are avoiding the hurdles, which we see as banana peels.
The fact is that the NTC Bill had enemies and was seen as a threat to already existing Empires and Emperors, who succeeded in ensuring that it was killed before birth.
Needless to state that, by killing the NTC Bill, Nigeria lost an opportunity to have a well-thought-out professional agency that would have ensured that Nigeria had a semblance of a transport sector that is governed by corporate ethos.
All that is history now, as the new Shipping & Port Regulatory Bill is set to test its luck, and it is our prayer that it scales the hurdles, both at the National Assembly and in the Presidency.
As a maritime media organisation, we are in full support of any law that will usher-in a new life for the Nigerian Shippers’ Council. This is not about relevance, it’s about the prospect of such a law enhancing ease of doing business in the ports and boosting revenue generation for the Federal Government.
We however hope that the Bill and its promoters clearly understand the responsibilities of both the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and that of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and other sister agencies under the Marine and Blue Economy, in the Bill
Unlike those who have contrary views about the creation of a National Transport Commission at that time, we do not think the fears they nursed are unnecessary under the new Shipping and Port Regulation Bill.
However, we call attention to some contentious areas and we call for caution. The drafters and supporters should pay attention to the potential conflict with the Act which established the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), especially as it concerns superintending the port concession. Rather than seek to regulate port concession, the new Bill should seek to work with the NPA in this regards.
We also agree with those who have pointed at yet another conflicting area with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) They identified provisions in the new Bill which talks about shipping regulation, issuance of certificates, licenses, fees, charges, and levies, as already being within the jurisdiction of NIMASA.
Our findings have revealed that although the NPA has not openly criticized the Bill. But its submission on the Bill clearly signposts its position, especially as it relates to two key words in the Bill, namely: “Ports” and “Shipping”.
We earnestly advise that the Shippers’ Council and the lawmakers should intensify their engagements with all relevant stakeholders. This is necessary to avoid a repeat of the fate that befell the National Transport Commission Bill.
The Nigerian Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency Bill is far more realistic than the contentious National Transport Commission Bill. As a leading media outfit in the Nigerian maritime industry, we maintain that if the new Bill sails through, it is going to be to the advantage of all.
As for the Shippers’ Council, it is already gradually metamorphosing from its small enclave of being ‘the protector of Nigerian shippers’, to a more engaged agency; working for a wider spectrum of stakeholders.
Transmuting to Shipping and Port Economic Regulator is in furtherance of its current assignment as the Economic Regulator of the port, so we are totally in support.
If the Shipping Bill sails through and the Council transmutes to the Nigerian Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency, it then means that the Shippers’ Council will have a new name and a new face. We think the Nigerian maritime industry will be the better for it and an advantage for all of us.
