By Roland Ekama, Lagos
The Nigeria Institute of Shipping (NIS), has reaffirmed commitment to revisit the chartered bill pending before the National Assembly (NASS),even as it stressed the need to engage Deputy Senate President , Senator Ovie Omo Agege on the importance of the maritime related documentation.
The chartered bill is co sponsored by the Nigerian Institute of Shipping (NIS) and the Certified Institute of Shipping , Nigeria (CISN).
The bill has been pending for close to ten years before the NASS.
Speaking on the development , National President ,NIS Captain Anthony Onoharigho who gave the assurance at the Institute’s 9th Annual General Meeting ( AGM)on Friday in Lagos, said the bill had gone up to the second reading before legislative issues came up and stopped it.
Onoharigho who emerged the NIS President again at the 9th Annual General Meeting of two years, noted that his executive would work harder to ensure the passage of the bill thus move to Institute forward .
For the chartered pending before the National Assembly; we took the bill to second reading then and Omo Agege had problem it stopped but we will reopen that chapter again and we are going to do our best and bring back to the senate.
“We will go back to him and see how we can get it back. As a matter of facts I revived it from where it was abandoned eight years ago.
” I am going to take it to where I left it eight years ago to the senate and it won’t be a problem this time around”,he stated.
Highpoints of the AGM was the induction of 50 persons as members and fellows, at the event.
While speaking on the lingering traffic congestion on roads linking the Lagos seaports, the NIS president said that there was the need to properly plan movement of articulated vehicles on the roads.
“Government should develop other ports; if cargoes are segregated, those going to Port Harcourt will go there; Lagos, Warri and Calabar will do same.
“We should not drop all cargoes in Lagos as this is part of what is causing the congestion.
“There is the need to make all ports that are not functioning to function again as the concentration of cargoes in Lagos is the major cause of the congestions,” he said.
The NIS is a professional body incorporated in 1993 with the objectives of facilitating international business cooperation at all levels and all aspect of maritime industry.
