As the Nigeria Shippers’ Council set to take-off as interim commercial port regulator, stakeholders in the maritime industry have expressed divergent views on the challenges and how the council can succeed in its new ombudsman role.
They barred their minds yesterday at an event which had in attendance, creme de la creme from the sector.
As the Nigeria Shippers’ Council set to take-off as interim commercial port regulator, stakeholders in the maritime industry have expressed divergent views on the challenges and how the council can succeed in its new ombudsman role.
They barred their minds yesterday at an event which had in attendance, creme de la creme from the sector.
Addressing participants at a breakfast meeting on the new role of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council as the economic regulator of the ports, former Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Aare Adebayo Sarumi tasked the council to carry out a thorough ‘SWOT’ analysis for the purpose of technocrats to be engaged in the organisation.
The former boss of the Nigeria Shippers’ Council also stressed the need for the council to expect impunity in the course of its ombudsmen role even as he charged the council’s board of directors, the Senior Special Adviser to the president on maritime affairs, Leke oyewole and the minister of transport Senator Idris Umar to work together for the purpose of the Ports and Harbour bill to be enacted.
Sarumi also predicted opposition from maritime operators against the council, saying that ship owners, freight forwarders and the stevedoring companies which engage dockworkers must be looked into effective for the purpose of achieving greatness.
According to him, "there will be too much impunity. Providers of services, users of services have been going their own ways and not getting to know that there is fair play in the system; and at the end of the day it is the economy of Nigeria that suffers"
"Now that we are going to have a strong and articulate regulator and everybody gets to obey them, then everybody will profit from it, the council doesn't need to use their muscle which was what we have been using so far."
He lauded the presidency for the initiative of giving the commercial port regulator status to the Nigeria Shippers Council.
"We expect everybody to bring their complaints to the table and if the judge is fair, the judge will be able to say where they are wrong or right and I believe that when they speak something reasonable to the council, they will definitely sheath there sward"
On his part Dr. Ernest Ndukwe called for the council to put in place the legal and regulatory framework.
The former Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Communications Commission who spoke on the institute and development: the role of a regulator; reiterated that the council must protect consumer interest in course of discharging its duty as an interim ombudsman in ports operations, even as he also called on the council to set standard in the line of discharging its functions.
According to him, the Nigeria Shippers Council should be more involved with consultations with operators and provide rules that will guide the operators.
He also urged the council to deal with issues that affects the concerned stakeholders.
Also speaking Vice Chairperson; ENL Consortium, Princess Vicky Haastrup kicked against the presence of Standard Organisation Nigeria (SON) in port operations, charging the council to look towards the direction on how to address the issue.
She however charged the council to carry all stakeholders along stressing that the Nigeria Shippers Council should monitor activities of the truck operators at the port.
A maritime lawyer; Mr Louis Mbanefo in his remarks, harped on the need for proper funding of the council to carry out its statutory role.
On his part, the director general of NIMASA, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi expressed the agency’s readiness to support the council in its new roles even as he suggested for stakeholders to push for the bill to be enacted.
Discussion about this post