Finally, the Nigeria Shippers’ Council has thrown its hat in the ring in the on-going contest for the transmutation of an agency under the ministry of transport to be the regulator of players and activities in the nation’s port system.
The council’s bid was announced before visiting members of the Senate committee on marine transport by its executive secretary and chief executive officer; Capt Adamu Biu.
Finally, the Nigeria Shippers’ Council has thrown its hat in the ring in the on-going contest for the transmutation of an agency under the ministry of transport to be the regulator of players and activities in the nation’s port system.
The council’s bid was announced before visiting members of the Senate committee on marine transport by its executive secretary and chief executive officer; Capt Adamu Biu.
The executive secretary made this known in a presentation to the Committee when its members visited Shippers’ Council corporate head office in Lagos yesterday.
He said that the council has been craving to be uplifted to serve as the commercial regulator in the nation’s seaports, adding that, currently there is no regulator in the system.
According to him, the arbitrary charges by the concessionaires have led to an outright increase in the cost of doing business in the country’s ports and with a commercial regulator in place; it will help the sector to grow.
Capt Biu said that, as an import-dependent nation coupled with the fact that there is a prevalence of foreign interests providing services in the chain; there is the need for a regulator in the industry that can add value to the transport sector of the economy.
‘’If we do not have somebody to regulate, to agree on trade, that is to agree on reduction in the price rate to make it commensurate, we will continue to be ripped by the ship owners and we know that more than 75 per cent of our trade is import- oriented, so we need someone that can regulate to add value to transport business in the country’’.
‘’That brings us to what we have been craving for; the establishment and the uplifting of the Nigeria Shippers’ Council to become the economic regulator to our nation’s port’’, Biu affirmed.
He reiterated that the concessioning of the ports has also worsened the situation, which he described as unpleasant in the area of doing business in the ports.
He added that the concessionaires ,as businessmen increase their charges and on the part of Shippers’ Council, the law states that they can only intervene in an advisory capacity because they do not have the instrument to force the concessionaires to go beyond a certain level in their charges.
‘’In 1978 when the Shippers Council was established we had a national shipping line, at least one third if not more trade was carried by our own shipping line which was a little bit of a relief in that perspective, but today we do not have a single container vessel, so we are 100% dependent on foreign patterns”, he lamented.
‘’And all of them are here to invest and make money, therefore we need an economic regulator, we need somebody that can stand and protect our interest, and that is what we are trying to project’’ Biu stated.
However the Executive Secretary also lamented that the council is hampered by paucity of funds.
According to him, the council gets its fund within three to four months in arrears, adding that monies meant for the agency are usually delayed and it is a problem.
‘’We are not funded legitimately presently, because there is no law that specified how we are funded, therefore we are illegally funded’’.
‘’The seven percent import duty surcharged is determined only by the Nigeria Customs Service and nobody else sits and assesses what that duty import is ‘’ he noted.
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