By Oyeniyi Iwakun
In pursuance of its objectives, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has embarked on aggressive campaign and sensitization of ports users on integrity and ethical conduct in order to make Nigerian ports competitive and cost- effective.
At one of the events held on Thursday at Plumbing Market Dealers Association, Lagos, the NSC through its team the sensitized the participants on the role of the Council.
The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of NSC, Barr. Hassan Bello who was represented by the Assistant Director of Operations, Mr. Nanbol Nanle, said that as an organization under the Federal Ministry of Transportation established to protect the interest of the Nigerian Shippers on matters affecting the shipment of their goods to and from Nigeria, NSC is resolute on delivering its mandate as economic regulator to make the nation’s ports conducive for legitimate trade.
“We bring warm greetings to you from the Executive Secretary. This initiative is aimed at educating Shippers on the role of integrity and ethical conduct in ensuring that Nigerian ports are competitive.” Nabol remarked
Nanbol in his address told the audience that NSC has observed that most Nigerian shippers have abandoned the Nigerian ports and resorted to using the neighboring ports due to so many highlighted factors by both ports users and service providers.
According to him, it is in the light of the various reasons accounting for the disfunctionality of the Nigerian ports and low patronage that the shippers council held a meeting with the controllers of Nigeria Customs Service within Lagos pilotage district and came out with possible ameliorations to the problems.
“About 70-80 percent of the cargo coming to West Africa is Nigerian bound cargo. It is only 30-40 percent of the cargo that is cleared at the Nigerian seaports. What happens to the remaining 40 percent? They come into Nigeria through the neighbouring ports of Cotonu, Lome, Accra, Abidjan etc.” He stated.
While emphasizing that there is need for diversification having realized that the era of oil boom is over as Nigeria cannot longer survive by remaining dependent on crude oil, Nabol urged participants to always exhibit high level of honesty, probity, transparency and accountability in their business transactions.
“Ethical standards and integrity demands generally that both the port users and the service providers, and government agencies in the ports play by the rules. It expected that every participant in international trade must commit to honest deal with every party and deal with utmost good faith.” He concluded
In his remark, Mr. Ebere Ifeneje, President of the union appreciated the team for the initiative which he described as timely. He urged his members to seized the opportunity by approaching the Nigerian Shippers’ Council whenever they have challenges rather than resulting to violence or confrontations with the customs and other enforcement agencies at the ports.
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