The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barr. Pius Akutah, has disclosed that two arms of the organization saved the bleeding Nigerian economy from further economic losses to the tune of N46billion in the last one year.
Akutah revealed this while speaking at his one-year media briefing in Lagos on Sunday, even as he noted that stakeholders engagement also recorded significant gains as a Kano operator was salavaged from making a $70,000 investment that would have been futile.
While singling out the Regulatory department and Complaints unit for saving N40billion and N6billion respectively, Akutah observed that the activities of the Council under his leadership helped in improving the quality of trade and perception of the agency and industry by stakeholders.
The NSC boss, however, described the progress made with the Nigeria Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency Bill, which has scaled through the House of Representatives and currently before the Senate, as one of the biggest accomplishments.
He expressed optimism that the bill will soon scale through the Senate and get Presidential assent to enhance the Council’s efficiency, speedily transform the nation’s ports and avail the Council requisite legal backing to address modern issues.
His words: “As the port economic regulator, one of our major concerns is that industry investments must yield profits and for that to happen, there has to be appropriate infrastructure. The infrastructure must be better to help the nation emerge as a shipping and logistics hub”
He maintained that the emergence of AfCFTA and its huge market means that the country must improve its shipping services in practice and infrastructure.
Noting the dilapidated state of port infrastructure, the NSC boss encouraged Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) expedite its efforts on repairs in a bid to give the nation’s seaports a competitive advantage.
“Maritime logistics remains a major challenge with AfCFTA. How will Nigerian goods reach the rest of Africa if these connectivity issues aren’t addressed? We have goods that have been manufactured in Nigeria and done all required to qualify for AfCFTA trade. How do we export if the problems in the shipping sector remain?
“Today, goods heading to some parts of Africa from Nigeria would first have to go to Europe before coming back to the African nation. This takes a long time and adds to the cost.”
The event was graced by maritime industry bigwigs, including; the Chairman of Shipping Companies Association, Boma Alabi SAN; President-General of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) Comrade Adewale Adeyanju; Deputy Managing Director, MSC Shipping, Jacob Iosso; President of the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), Otunba Frank Ogunojemite; Lagos Chairman of Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr Adeleye Ajayi, among others.
