- NSC Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Jime
By Anthony Nwachukwu
The Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT), partnering the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), has announced a sensitisation programme on some functions of the council.
To be chaired by the FMOT Permanent Secretary, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, the programme is scheduled for Friday, 22nd July, 2022 in Lagos, with the theme, “Port Economic Regulator – NSC in Focus,” and it is aimed at enlightening stakeholders and the general public on the NSC mandate as the Port Economic Regulator.
A paper titled, “Promoting Competitiveness and Compliance in Nigerian Maritime Industry” will be presented at the event by maritime economist, Prof. Bongo Adi, according to a statement from the NSC Head, Public Relations, Rakiya Dhikru-Yagboyaju.
Stakeholders expected at the programme include regulated service providers, chief executive officers of regulatory agencies, maritime experts, lawyers, the organised private sector, shippers and the Nigeria Customs Service, among others.
The Federal Government, as part of the port reforms programme of 2006, had transferred ownership of Nigerian ports to private investors, with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) as the landlord and technical regulator, but there was no agency in the maritime sector saddled with port economic regulation.
This brought about irregularities and anomalies in the shipping sector, including the imposition of different tariff headings by terminal operators and shipping lines/agents, lack of holding bays for containers, and shortage of modern cargo handling equipment, among others.
To address the anomalies, maritime stakeholders sought the appointment of a regulator for the ports, and on February 14, 2014, the Federal Government pronounced the NSC as interim port regulator, and declared it the Port Economic Regulator in 2015. Prior to that appointment, the NSC had always protected the interest of shippers.
As the Port Economic Regulator, NSC is saddled with instituting effective regulation at ports, and working with other government agencies, and has over the years also put in place various initiatives to bring sanity to the ports.
