Shippers Council Makes Case For Marine/Blue Economy Minister To Revamp National Carrier

The Nigerian Shipper’s Council (NSC) has advocated for the federal government to intervene and resuscitate  a national carrier status for the country as part of measures to boost shipping development and revenue profile of the nation.

The Executive Secretary of the council, Emmanuel Jime who made this known in a paper presentation as delivered by the Director , Strategic Planning and Research, NSC, Mr. Rotimi Anifowose at a meeting with the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola on Wednesday in Lagos, reiterated that the establishment of National Fleet would engender a lot of benefits to the sector as well as the national economy.

The Executive Secretary maintained that the revamping of a national shipping line would boost revenue profile of the new Ministry and further create job opportunities for Nigerians , saying that the fleet would increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in excess of $5.42 billion annually.

According to him, the creation of a national fleet would further enhance the marine and blue economy potentials adding that the proposed fleets when refloated  will address issues of low tonnage , lull in revenue generation of the government and job losses.

On gains of the national carrier status for the nation’s maritime sector  , Jime further explained that the resuscitation of such fleets will boost freight revenue and harness the benefits of the blue economy, which would generate billion of dollars to the coffers of the federal government.

Jime pointed out that:”The next one is the establishment of a national fleet, Minister we are adding the minister of Marine and Blue Economy. The proposed fleets if fully created will address low tonnage capacity,  loss of jobs, lost of freight earnings.

“The national fleet when implemented will bring the following benefits; over 5.2 billion dollars will be expected to be added to the gross domestic product GDP and over 1billion dollar direct investment will be recorded if harnessed.”

“Matters requiring urgent attention. For us in the Council, we will appreciate that your office will help us to look at establishment of National Fleet.

“The federal government appointed the Shippers’ Council as the secretariat of the National Fleet Implementation Committee while the Executive Secretary/CEO is the Chairman.

“The proposed fleet if done, is expected to address the following challenges of loss of job, loss of freight earning and others.

“The National Fleet bring over $5. 42 billion is expected to be added to the Gross Domestic Product, $1.62 billion accruable to government from Corporate Income Tax through the Joint Venture Company (JVC).

“Over 1 billion foreign direct investment would come into our economy but most importantly, we will have 9.1 billion in state revenue.

“We look forward to Nigeria having its own fleet so that we can harness these benefits.”

“Suffice to say that prior to now, the Shippers’ Council was not included in the concession agreement and it is recognized as port economic Regulator in that arrangement.

On the implementation of the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM), he maintained that the Council has been able to intervene for Shippers’ saving them up to N5 4 billion within two years.

“Concerning the Port Process Manual, we have been able to save the Nigerian Economy in vessel demurrage, an average of $20,000 between year 2021 and 2022. This ultimately translates to $12,350,000 which is over N5. 4 billion at 2022 official exchange rate.

“The average time is reduced from 7 to 20 days to 1 to 4 hours. We have been able to negotiate out of court settlement with some stakeholders such as Maersk Nigeria Limited and APM Terminals

“We promoted digitisation and automation of all port processes, this is very important and we wish to report that the digitisation covers among others, digitisation of cargo release process and digitisation of manifest submission.

“All agents bf terminals have achieved almost 100 percent of their cargo release process. We are happy that sister agencies like NIMASA and NPA have digitalised their manifest process in recognition of Nigerian Shippers’ Council ‘s regulatory responsibility.

“We have handled complaints and I am happy to announce to you sir that over the course of the past years, we have been able to save stakeholders the sum of N2,397,828,976.23k,” he said.

The Executive Secretary also reeled out some of the achievements of the Council saying that the agency has been able to ensure the inclusion of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council as economic Regulator in the concession agreement .

While appealing to the Minister on the need for intervention and support towards the council drive to execute it’s regulatory functions efficiently, Jime advocated for the amendment of the NSC act to encourage it perform optimally than what it was as port economic regulatory .

On digitisation of the port process, he enthused that the port can boast of about 90 percent automation stressing that  most of the shipping companies and terminal operators are currently operating online processing  of business transaction and manifest .

Discussing on some of the achievements recorded so far,  the Council’s boss further told the minister that Nigerian Shipper’s Council in recent past years has been able to save over 2 .397 billion naira on behalf of shippers and other stakeholders.

Responding, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola promised that his administration would pursue the establishment of the Port Community System, a Single Window Project championed by the Nigerian Shippers Council towards ensuring ease of doing business at Nigerian Ports.

 

“I have gone round to look at the state of our ports, and it is very discouraging. I am not blaming anybody because the ports are old.

“With what I saw today at Lekki Deep Seaport, i would want us to replicate that in other places. My concept of port development is more of PPP, so, it is important for us to start thinking about that” he said.

 

By Roland Ekama