Shippers Council Holds Seminar for South-South Operators

The Nigerian Shippers Council last week held a One-day seminar for South-South operators at the Port Harcourt port on the importance and role of the council as an economic regulator.
The seminar titled ‘’the importance of Regulation in Facilitating International Trade’’ held at the Beverly Hotels in Port Harcourt last Thursday.

The Nigerian Shippers Council last week held a One-day seminar for South-South operators at the Port Harcourt port on the importance and role of the council as an economic regulator.
The seminar titled ‘’the importance of Regulation in Facilitating International Trade’’ held at the Beverly Hotels in Port Harcourt last Thursday.
Addressing a large crowd of operators at the event, the Executive Secretary of the Shippers Council, Barrister Hassan Bello said that the target of the Federal Government in the appointment of the council as regulator is to set standards.
Bello who was represented by one of his Deputy Directors, Rev. Winner Anayo, noted that the appointment will help in the sanitization of trade across Nigerian Ports, thereby setting appropriate standards for service delivery to ensure affordability, availability, and efficiency of services.
‘’ Port Economic Regulation is also intended to provide guidelines on tariff setting to guard against arbitrariness of charges, encourage competition among service providers and to prevent abuse of dominant market position’’, the Executive Secretary stated.
Bello also noted that this will attract local and foreign direct investment and above all reduce inflationary effect on the economy.
According to him, eight years of port concession without an economic regulator has caused slow and inefficient service delivery as well as astronomical increase in the cost of doing business at the ports. He said that this has made the ports less attractive and forced importers to divert their goods to ports in the neighboring countries.
‘’ Nigerian ports recorded decrease in cargo throughput and loss of revenue accruable to government. This deplorable situation if allowed to continue would diminish the good intentions of FG to make our seaports the preferred port of destination for International Trade’’, the Executive Secretary stated.
Presenting a keynote address on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce in Rivers State, a Director in the Ministry Mr. Emmanuel Nwankwo, thanked the Nigerian Shippers Council, and the organizers of the Seminar for the choice of Port Harcourt to host the event.
He said the choice of Port Harcourt signifies the recognition of the pride of place occupied by the town in International Maritime Spectrum and her contribution to the Nigerian economy.
Mr. Nwankwo assured the commitment and support of Rivers State Government on measures that will restore the nation’s seaports glory and make Nigerian ports the preferred port of destination in West African Sub region.
In an interview with maritime journalists shortly after the event, Zonal Coordinator South-South Zone of Shippers Council and host of the event, Mr. Philip Eduwa expressed appreciation for the large attendance by maritime stakeholders in the zone.
“We in NSC want to market all the ports in the nation, reduce low cargo movement, and address arbitrary and differential hikes in tariffs, and encourage fair competition across the Nigerian ports” Eduwa stated.