The Ports Consultative Council (PCC) has tasked the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to revitalise its defunct organs of trade facilitation and also reduce the cost of doing business in the maritime sector.
Chairman of PCC, Otunba Kunle Folarin who led its top members on a courtesy visit to the Shippers council in Lagos on Tuesday however assured the Executive Secretary of the Council, Barrister Hassan Bello of the support of PCC in ensuring that his tenure as the helmsman at the council is successful.
The Ports Consultative Council (PCC) has tasked the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to revitalise its defunct organs of trade facilitation and also reduce the cost of doing business in the maritime sector.
Chairman of PCC, Otunba Kunle Folarin who led its top members on a courtesy visit to the Shippers council in Lagos on Tuesday however assured the Executive Secretary of the Council, Barrister Hassan Bello of the support of PCC in ensuring that his tenure as the helmsman at the council is successful.
He listed the Port Charges Monitoring Committee, Shippers’ Associations and others as organs that would facilitate trade and reduce the cost of doing business at the ports.
"We implore you to focus on reviewing the established organs of trade facilitations which were operating in the council but have now gone on sabbatical" Folarin said.
“The council should also reach out to stakeholders regularly as this certainly will enhance the success of your organisation.
“We are assuring the acting executive secretary of our fullest support in ensuring that his tenure is not only successful, but also remarkable and memorable in moving the maritime industry in Nigeria to the next enviable level,“ Folarin said.
He said the PCC was the highest consultative and advisory body in the Nigerian maritime industry with members drawn from all areas of maritime industry.
Folarin said that the PCC had intervened and made suggestions to tackle some of the major problems in the maritime industry.
He said that some of these problems included port charges, port congestion, Cabotage implementation, scarcity of manpower and corruption.
Folarin said that the PCC had also made suggestions on port reform, assessment of port concession, port access road maintenance and inter-agency problems as well as security and piracy issues.
He said that the PCC also made suggestions on Cargo Tracking Note, fast tracking the establishment of Inland Container Depots and seaport development.
Responding, the Shippers’ Council boss said he recognised PCC as one of the major stakeholders in the maritime sector, even as he assured that the council is already pushing for the amendment of its laws. He said the NSC was the “conscience of Nigeria’s international trade”.
Bello assured the PCC delegates which include, the Chairman of Shipping Association of Nigeria, Mr. Val Usifoh as well as the former rector of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, Engineer Olu Akinsji, that the council is already working to revitalise its Shippers’ Associations.
“I think this is profound. It is fundamental.
“We are indeed the conscience of the nation as far as international shipping is concerned because we are not only the umpire or referee, we are the ombudsman and we are also the policeman.
“We encourage collaboration between providers of shipping services and the users,” Bello said.
He recalled that the NSC had pushed for amendment of the law establishing the council.
“We just want to be the representative of the shippers and that umpire who will listen to the two sides,” Bello said.
He said that the Shippers’ Complaint Unit, a unit of the NSC, was established to listen to complaints from shippers, adding that stakeholders did not accept the unit initially.
He informed the group that as part of its efforts to facilitate trade, the council had recently led a delegate to Niger Republic and other neighboring countries in order to convince them to start using Nigerian ports as transit port.
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