Shippers Council mutes pre-shipment of cargo

The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello, has said that the council was considering a pre-shipment cargo inspection to drive down port charges.
The shippers boss said measures are being put in place to sanitise the port and that the organisation aimed to push down the tariff to 20 to 25 per cent reduction.
He said that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was craving for an enrolment into the non-oil revenue earning strata, therefore NSC as port economic regulator was fine-tuning measures to make the port attractive to users.
“With the chunk of the burden of inspection on the ports of origin, less cargo dwell time will be achieved thereby cutting off some unwholesome port charges emanating from delays.
“We lack functional scanners in the ports, some of these anarmolies tend to compound issues for the port users that make them prey to operators who put up astronomical charges outside the market parameter.
“It took the intervention of NSC and other concerned agencies to bring to halt what CMA shipping company would have introduced into the system tagged, ”cargo sub-charge.”
“If they had succeeded, others would emulate them and the last consumer of the products would be made to pay for it; these are the genesis of high cost of goods in the country,’’ Bello said.
According to him, the council was also looking at ways to improve on ports infrastructure to facilitate trade and attract cargoes of Nigeria’s neighbouring landlock countries.
Bello said that there was an ad-hoc interministrial committee working in conjunction with critical stakeholders to stimulate the optimal functionality of the Eastern ports to complement Lagos ports.