Shippers Council declares interest on port regulation

The Nigeria Shippers’ Council has finally thrown its hat in the ring in the on-going contest for the transmutation of an agency under the ministry of transport to be the regulator of players and activities in the nation’s port system.

The council’s interest was announced yesterday when members of the Senate committee on marine transport visited its executive secretary and chief executive officer; Capt Adamu Biu at Council’s Corporate Head office in Lagos

He said that the council has been craving to be uplifted to serve as the commercial regulator in the nation’s seaports, adding that, currently there is no regulator in the system.

According to him, the arbitrary charges by the concessionaires have led to an outright increase in the cost of doing business in the country’s ports and with a commercial regulator in place; it will help the sector to grow.

Capt Biu said that, as an import-dependent nation coupled with the fact that there is a prevalence of foreign interests providing services in the chain; there is the need for a regulator in the industry that can add value to the transport sector of the economy.

‘’If we do not have somebody to regulate, to agree on trade, that is to agree on reduction in the price rate to make it commensurate, we will continue to be ripped by the ship owners and we know that more than 75 per cent of our trade is import- oriented, so we need someone that can regulate to add value to transport business in the country”.

‘’That brings us to what we have been craving for; the establishment and the uplifting of the Nigeria Shippers’ Council to become the economic regulator to our nation’s port”, Biu affirmed.

 
Source: Vanguard