By Kenneth Jukpor
In a bid to revive the nation’s economy, the former Director of the Maritime Services Department of the Ministry of Transport and former Managing Director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) Mrs. Chinwe Ezenwa has called on government agencies under the Ministry of Transportation which include; Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), among others to channel their efforts towards reducing the logistics costs for small and medium-sized enterprises in the country.
According to Ezenwa, high cost of logistics in the country has become one of the major reasons why businesses do not thrive in the nation and it was the responsibility of the Ministry of Transportation and its parastatals to reduce the burden of logistics cost for SMEs in the country.
Ezenwa, who was speaking during the recent Women in Logistics and Transport (WiLAT) Nigeria 5th Annual conference last week, lamented that most businesses in Nigeria don’t bother to know how logistics affects their businesses.
She also urged freight forwarders in Nigeria to work towards developing technologies for efficiency in their profession, rather than scrabble for the collection of Practitioners Operating Fees (POF) and power tussle which has become the norm in the freight forwarding practice in Nigeria.
Ezenwa also called on Nigerians to create more jobs in the country by patronizing ‘Made-In-Nigeria’ products and services. “Why do you want to patronize Gucci and Louis Vuitton bags when you can get quality bags in Nigeria like Le Look bags? You create more jobs for Nigerians when you buy Nigerian products. You have the banks, transport companies, and several other sectors that benefit when you buy Nigerian products” she said.
In her opening remarks, the Founder of Women in Logistics and Transport (WiLAT) Nigeria, Hajia Aisha Ali-Ibrahim revealed that WiLAT was spreading its influence to China as the group would launch a Chinese chapter in November.
Hajia Aisha also highlighted the production and launch of ‘We Book’ as one of the group’s major achievements in the past year. The We Book which contains the history and activities of WiLAT globally is titled “We Inspire and We Impact”.
“WiLAT has grown so wide that we now have regions and regional coordinators and I want to use this opportunity to commend the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman for her massive contribution and support” she added.
The Global Convener of WILAT, Aisha Ali Ibrahim who doubles as Port Manager, Apapa Port Complex eulogized the numerous contributions of members over the years towards the actualization of the vision of the International body.
According to her “WILAT should strive at achieving its core values in the area of strategic employment and social responsibility”. She promised to make sure that the body’s chapters continue to increase appreciably noting that the member countries had risen to 19 from 12 in 2013 to 18 in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman was presented with an award of recognition and excellence by the Association (WILAT) for outstanding performance in office.
The Managing Director reiterated the Authority’s commitment and readiness of the Federal Government towards providing an enabling environment for relevant Stakeholders and Port users in order to institute the enhancement and actualization of best practices across the nation’s Seaports. This she said would go a long way in aiding the realization of the dream of the Organisation in making the Nigerian Ports a reference point in sub-Saharan Africa.
Hadiza in a paper with the theme “Government directives on Ease Of Doing Business in the Port: Its Challenges And Sustainability” stressed that the Federal Government would put in place machinery in the area of full implementation of the Executive Order in the area of an enabling and conducive environment, Customer Service Delivery to Stakeholders by way of Standard Operational Procedure [SOP] and transparency. She stated that operational efficiency is pivotal to effective implementation and sustainability of the executive orders of the Federal Government as its concerns the sub-sector.
Similarly, the NPA boss called on all stakeholders at the event to imbibe the culture of leading by example at all times through the direct supervision of activities assigned to individuals and groups stressing that it is critical in the area of optimizing productivity by way of motivation and mentoring.
On her part, one of the matrons of WiLAT and a former Minister of Transportation and Aviation, Dr. (Mrs.) Kema Chikwe posited that as a result of the efforts of WiLAT in developing the capacity of women across the logistics and transport sector, more women would be appointed into significant positions in the nation.
“I believe that there is going to be tremendous improvement in the nation because more women would take up significant roles in governance, ministerial appointments and other significant roles in private sectors as a result of the efforts of groups like WiLAT”
“WiLAT is grooming women of influence and caliber. WiLAT is exposing them to the world to enable them operate with best practices. In a nutshell, WiLAT is grooming the future women in various carreers” she added.
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