The Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT), in collaboration with Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) is organizing a sensitization programme on where competitiveness and the need for compliance to regulations in the maritime sector will be emphasized.
Nigerian ports stakeholders will be enlightened on NSC’s port economic regulatory role at the programme which will be chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani.
The event themed; “Port Economic Regulator – NSC in Focus” is scheduled to hold Friday 22nd, July, 2022 at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, by 9.00am.
A paper titled “Promoting Competitiveness and Compliance in Nigerian maritime Industry”, will be presented at this much anticipated event by Prof. Bongo Adi, a maritime economist.
Regulated Service Providers, CEOs of Regulatory Agencies, Maritime Experts, Lawyers, Organized Private Sector and Shippers, Nigeria Customs Service and other stakeholders are expected to attend the sensitization programme.
It may be recalled that the Federal Government’s Port Reform programme of 2006 transferred the ownership of Nigerian ports to private investors. In the reform, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) was the Landlord and the technical regulator for the ports while there was no agency in the maritime sector given the mandate of port economic regulator. This brought about irregularities in the shipping sector. The anomalies include the imposition of different tariff headings by terminal operators and shipping lines/agents, lack of holding bays for containers, shortage of modern cargo handling equipment, etc.
In order to address the anomalies, the maritime stakeholders sought the appointment of a regulator for the ports. On February 14, 2014, the Federal Government pronounced Nigerian Shippers’ Council as interim port regulator. Shippers’ Council had before that always protected the interest of shippers. In 2015, the Federal Government declared Nigerian Shippers’ Council as the Port Economic Regulator.
As the port economic regulator, NSC was saddled with the responsibility to institute effective regulation at ports, working with other government agencies and the Council has over the years also embarked on various initiatives to bring sanity to the ports.
This information was disseminated via a press statement issued by Rakiya Dhikru-Yagboyaju, Head, Public Relations at NSC.
