The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) was established by Decree 13 of 1978 now Nigerian Shippers’ Council Act Cap. N133, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. This was based on the 1965 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s recommendation, urging developing countries to create National Shippers’ Councils as public sector authorities to act as a countervailing force against the exploitative excesses of foreign ship owners and other providers of shipping and related services.  

The Nigerian Shippers’ Council was appointed the Port Economic Regulator in February 2014, to create an effective regulatory regime at the Nigerian ports for the control of tariffs, rates, charges as well as economic services to address the negative impact of port concession activities on the economy. 

The appointment was affirmed by a Presidential Order and a  Ministerial Regulation as follows:

1.Nigerian Shippers’ Council (Port Economic Regulator) Order, 2015.

2.Nigerian Shippers’ Council (Port Economic) Regulations 2015.

The functions of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council as Port Economic Regulator are as follows:

• Provide guidelines on tariff setting in order to guide against arbitrariness;
• Monitor and enforce standards of service delivery to ensure availability, accessibility, affordability, stability, predictability and adequacy of services;
• Encourage competition and guard against the abuse of monopoly and dominant market positions;
• Perform mediatory role among stakeholders; 
• Establish accessible and modern dispute resolution mechanism
• Regulate market entry and exit;
• Promote efficiency in the provision of port services;
• Minimize high cost of doing business and prevent its inflationary effect on the Nigerian economy;
• Encourage private sector investment in the ports;
• Monitor and ensure compliance by all parties with the provisions of the Port Concession Agreements.

  Other functions of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council are contained in the subsidiary legislations as follows: –

  –The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (Local Shipping Charges) Regulations 1997.

  –The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (Inland Container Depot) Regulation 2007.

  –The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (Container Freight Station) Regulation 2007.

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