High cargo charges devil shipping service in Nigeria

The high and indiscriminate increase in cargo terminal charges by private terminal operators is hampering Nigeria’s effort to enforce sanity in shipping services.
Also shipping is bedevilled by poor service delivery.
The situation could not be ameliorated in the absence of a strong regulatory agency as envisaged in the National Transportation Commission Bill passed by the National Assembly for which the president has withheld assent.
The Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC) said that in addition to the Port and Harbour Bill which is yet to see the light of day, “regulation has remained cumbersome and policy enhancement elusive and resistance to regulations common among operators”.
Mr. Hassan Bello, Executive Secretary of the NSC said in Lagos: “Litigation has been rife in the sector with it attendant private monopoly instead of public monopoly that will encourage competition in the sector.”
According to him the passages of those bills will among other things enhance policy formulation geared towards the development of the sector.
Bello, who was giving the stewardship of the organisation in the outgoing year, regretted that 12 years after port reform, the Transport Commission and the Port and Harbor bills remained unavailable.
Noting that the situation had continued to affect the regulation of the shipping sector, Bello stated that although his council has developed standard operation procedure for port users to reduce delays in cargo handling processes in order to reduce cost, it is unable to activate the strategy as the National Transportation Commission Bill which would have given legal teeth has not been signed into law.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bill which had been passed by the National Assembly suffered a set back recently as the president declined his assent to it.
He appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to reconsider his decision to decline assent to the National Transportation Commission Bill.
The National Transportation Commission bill, which was meant to streamline regulations in the transport industry, especially in the maritime sector, was promoted by the shippers council.
Source: Business and Maritime