Union Wants Shippers Council As Ports Regulator

The Nigerian Shippers Council Senior Staff Association (NSCSSA), has  appealed to the Federal Government to appoint the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) as ports regulator, to boost the maritime industry.

President, NSCSSA, Mr Moses Fadipe told journalists recently in Lagos that the continued absence of a regulator in the industry was negatively affecting government efforts at reforming the ports.

He said “Development of infrastructure is a prerequisite but not a guarantee for absence of a commercial regulator for the ports’’.

He stated that until the government put in place a mechanism for control of arbitrary port charges by shipping companies and terminal operators, the cost of goods and services would continue to soar in Nigeria.

Fadipe explained that the need for council to be the commercial regulator of the port was provided for in the Act establishing it.

He said “Nigerian Shippers Council is neither an operator nor a landlord, but simply an arbiter between service providers and consumer of shipping services.

He added “the Act that established the council has one of its functions as ‘to protect cargo interest and to prevent shippers from exploitative tendencies of the shipping service providers’. Stressing that “the government already has the appropriate agency for a commercial regulator that can drive the transport system’’.

Fadipe noted that the NSC, as a regulator, would not to fix prices, but would ensure that charges were commensurate with those obtainable in other ports of the world.

He said that the council was presently in the six geopolitical zones of the federation, adding, “it has the personnel, the spread and understands the port industry by using the council, the government will spend less.”

Fadipe said that arbitrary charges by terminal operators have rendered Nigerian ports the most expensive in the West African sub-region.