The Nigerian Institute of Shipping [NIS] has highlighted some of the factors that have been hindering the passage of the Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria [CISN] Bill that is presently before the National Assembly.
The Bill which is jointly sponsored by the Nigerian Institute of Shipping [NIS] and the Certified Institute of Shipping [CIS] since 2010 is aimed at providing a platform for professionalism, human capacity development and to penalize individuals and organizations that violate the standards of the maritime industry.
The Nigerian Institute of Shipping [NIS] has highlighted some of the factors that have been hindering the passage of the Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria [CISN] Bill that is presently before the National Assembly.
The Bill which is jointly sponsored by the Nigerian Institute of Shipping [NIS] and the Certified Institute of Shipping [CIS] since 2010 is aimed at providing a platform for professionalism, human capacity development and to penalize individuals and organizations that violate the standards of the maritime industry.
Highlighting some of the challenges that are responsible for the delay at the National Assembly, First National Vice President of the Nigerian Institute of Shipping [NIS] Dr Samuel Babatunde told Shipping Position Daily in his office in Lagos, that inconsistency and instability of the various committees have made the bill to suffer a major setback.
Dr Babatunde who also doubles as the Registrar of Ports and Terminal Management Academy of Nigeria [POTEMAN] said last week that the frequent change of members of the National Assembly also contributed to the delay, adding that the ability to schedule meetings with the committee was causing a great hindrance.
The vice president of NIS noted that the Bill; if passed into law stands to instill discipline in various practitioners in the maritime sector who may be found wanting and it is also a platform for the international community to recognize the industry through standards and ethics of the profession.
He explained that financial constraint has also affected the bill because the two sponsoring institutes have spent millions of Naira on lobbying for the Bill to be passed into law for the betterment for the maritime practitioners.
According to him, the Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria Bill, if passed would be able to create a standard that every human capacity building organizations in the sector will be able to key into for the purpose of standardization.
‘’Presently, there is no kind of cohesion in terms of the standard of training or standard of input in the industry, by the time we have Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria, we will be able to set up standards for every maritime institutions in the sector’’, he explained.
‘’When the CISN Bill is passed, there will be a kind of control or sanction so that whoever that does anything illegal as far as the industry is concerned can not just go away with it, there will be an investigation department under the charter which will serve as a jurisdiction to penalize whoever that goes against the norms and standards ‘’.
‘’On the other aspect, the ability to schedule a meeting with the marine transport committees of the two chambers is one of the challenges of both the NIS and CIS, most of the time when we have written series of letters to meet with the chairman of marine committee, there is always ione issue or the other to thwart it”, he lamented.
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