By Kenneth Jukpor
The Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) has commended Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) for its intervention which led to stoppage of a one hundred and fifty thousand naira (N150,000.00k) charge by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on all trucks carrying diesel into NAHCO.
NAHCO revealed this in a letter to NSC titled; “RE: Removal Of N150,000 Gate Fee Charged On Trucks That Bring Diesel To NAHCO By FAAN” dated November 23rd, 2018.
According to NAHCO the charges stopped after NSC intervened following NAHCO’s earlier complaint to the Council in a letter sent earlier.
The letter signed by NAHCO’s Manager, Corporate Communications and Services, Mr. Tayo Ajakaye, read: “We write to report to you on the latest development on the above subject matter. Be kindly informed that the said fee of N150,000 charged by FAAN on each truck that brings diesel to our company has been stopped. The decision of the Authority on the matter was conveyed to us via a letter dated April 12, 2018”
“It is our considered view that this would have been impossible without your intervention. Please accept our sincere appreciation for your kind support on this matter” it said.
Recall that under the port economic regulatory functions of Shippers’ Council, the agency is saddled with the onus of providing guidelines on tariff setting in order to guide against arbitrariness; monitor and enforce standards of service delivery to ensure availability, accessibility, affordability, stability, predictability and adequacy of services; encourage competition and guard against the abuse of monopoly and dominant market positions; perform mediatory role among stakeholders; establish accessible and modern dispute resolution mechanism.
Other functions include; regulate market entry and exit, promote efficiency in the provision of port services, minimize high cost of doing business and prevent its inflationary effect on the Nigerian economy, encourage private sector investment in the port sector and monitor and ensure compliance by all parties with the provisions of the Port Concession Agreements.
