Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) will ensure members become strong and formidable to negotiate with transport service providers on freight payable and associated cost.
Mr Hassan Bello, Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the council, disclosed this when he received members of Abuja Shippers Association recently in Abuja.
The NSC boss urged the association to ensure sanity in its membership and also ensure that they were not discouraged by shippers that were not genuine.
“The more organised you are the more you put pressure, not only on your negotiations but also on the government to do certain things.
`We have the Kaduna Dry Port for example, we have not exported anything for a year now because of rail problems which I am happy to announce is being addressed now, and we will soon resume export.
“So, I want you to be very organised, I want you to make sure that your organisation is not infuriated by those who are not shippers, make sure they are all shippers because I have been hearing in other places the takeover by people who have no business with import or export.
“NSC is under obligation to organise shippers. In fact, if we have strong shippers, then we will go and rest because the shippers will go themselves and negotiate terms of trade, the bill of laden, Incoterms and so many other things.
“Right now the balance is on the providers of services, the consumers of services have been taking a lot, even though shippers council has protected you from formal increase in cost, we have also increased the efficiency.”
Bello said that the Federal Government had commenced actions to increase efficiency of port operations through the Nigeria Port Process Manual (NPPM).
Mr Moses Fadipe, Deputy Director Special Duties, NSC, while speaking on the NPPM, said it would check excesses in the port industry.
Fadipe, who is the Coordinator of the Federal Government’s Port Tax Team, said the manual would provide timeline for every activity in the port from pre arrival of vessels to its departure.
He said:“It tells everybody who you are, what you do, how you do it and the timelines. So the consumer of that service will know at every point whether his right has been infringed.”
According to him, when a vessel comes into the Nigerian waterways, a timeline of 30 minutes is given to the port head, which is the first agency to come on board such vessels.
