The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to enhance cargo evacuation from seaports to the hinterland and lower business costs.
Speaking during the joint sensitisation and MoU signing event in Lagos last week, the Executive Secretary of NSC, Mr Pius Akutah, said that the collaboration aimed to address the inefficiencies in cargo evacuation, caused by the lack of a functional rail system.
According to him, the lack of a functional rail system has led to port congestion, delayed vessel off-loading, and increased demurrage costs.
Akutah, a lawyer, noted that the NSC’s role includes liaising with government agencies to resolve inland transportation issues and monitoring intermodal coordination to improve efficiency.
“Our responsibility is also to monitor intermodal coordination as it relates to challenges, costs and efficiency across these modes of transport.
He recalled that, “on February 20th, 2014, following the concession of the Nigerian ports in 2006, aimed at making the ports effective and efficient in line with global trends and best practices, the Federal Government further pronounced the Nigerian Shippers’ Council as an Interim Ports Economic Regulator, while it was confirmed as a substantive Ports Economic Regulator in April 2015”.
In his response, Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr Fidet Okhiria, said the signing of the MoU would enable the two government organisations to strengthen their responsibility to ease cargo movement through rail linkage.
“We should be able to move into the terminals, we should not disappoint our customers.
“The Standard Operating Procedures have been captured in the MoU and we will ensure that on our side, we will not be found wanting,” he said.
Okhiria said that the corporation should have goods to carry and be pleased with the terminal operators to properly harness the issue of unavailability of cargo for movement.
He lamented the unavailability of cargoes for rail freight, adding that it took them lots of time to gather 17 cargoes moved by rail to Kano sometime ago.
In her goodwill message, the Chairman, Apapa Local Government, Mrs Adejumoke Idowu, urged the NRC to make freight and passenger rail transportation functional in the Apapa ports area to ease both cargo and passenger movement.
Idowu urged the Federal Government to open up transportation development in Apapa ports to drive more cargoes out of the ports and ease the time of doing business.
Also speaking, Mrs Chinyere Uromta, the acting Registrar, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders (CRFFN), expressed the readiness of the council to support other port agencies to enable the government to achieve ease of doing business in Nigerian ports.
Uromta called on stakeholders to collaborate with government agencies to improve revenue generation for the government.
The Director of Inland Transport Services, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Mrs Ify Okolue, said the summit was to identify challenges facing the Nigerian Railway Corporation infrastructural development.
