Shippers’ Council charges newly elected Shippers’ body to influence govt. policies

Harboursandport.com: Lagos - The Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) has charged the newly elected executive of the National Shippers Association of Nigeria (NASAN) to organise themselves so as to positively influence decisions and policies that affect shipping in the country.

L-R: Director, North-West Zonal Coordinator, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hajia Karimatu Othman, Director, North-Central Zonal Co-ordinator (NSC), Director, Inland Transport Services (NSC), Mrs. Ify Okolue, and Director, Consumer Affairs Department (NSC), Chief Cajetan Agu, at the NASAN elections in Lagos.

Executive Secretary of the Council, Hassan Bello, made the call on Tuesday at the elections into the various offices of NASAN.

He pointed out that “shippers have the capacity to negotiate freight rates, shipping procedures, International Commercial Terms, INCOTERMS, which is the contract of carriage of goods/ affreightment. These are all the responsibilities of the shippers.

“So, they are being organised so that they can negotiate with providers of shipping services. You see today about 27 states are here because shipping is not coastal, there must be hinterland; there are shippers everywhere, in every state there are shippers.

“We have a cross-section of shippers from all the states, they have been there but now we are being them together to have a national body. That is what brought us here; we are strict on who is a shipper. A shipper must be somebody who imports or exports on a regular basis.

“That will mean he will represent the Nigerian Shippers at international forum and can also influence decisions of the federal government, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and others as far as shipping is concerned.

“Shippers are important in the African Free Trade Continental Agreement, AfTCA, area; they need to be part of the talking arrangement to see that we bring out our best so that we will in the long run benefit from this trade agreement in terms of infrastructure.

“It is important that the shippers design or urge government that infrastructure be built, the one who benefits is the one who has the best infrastructure then our productive capacity will improve,” he noted.

At the end of the electioneering process, Dr. Innocent Akuvue, President of Rivers Bayelsa Shippers Association (RIBASA) emerged winners and President General of National Shippers Association of Nigeria, NASAN for the next two years.

Muhammed Jamilu Umar emerged as Vice President, while Ijeoma Ezeosor is the Secretary-General. Other elected officers include; Barr Ibrahim Mustapha as Assistant Secretary, Ayo Odekunle as Treasurer, Otaka Kalu Uche as Financial Secretary and Muazu Yakubu as the National Welfare Officer.

In his victory speech, the new NASAN President, Innocent Akuvue vowed that he would work with maritime stakeholders on different ports and try to streamline procedures and processes to make clearing, importing and exporting much more convenient.

He added that it would not be a case of the association working alone, as if they don’t synergize with other people, they would not work effectively.

“This is an association that we created to carter for shippers and their are importers, exporters, and their goods.

“Our role is to create enough awareness for shippers to know what their likes are, for them to know how to process imports and exports documentations.

“There are a lot is issues, like port congestions, this is because people have imported things that they are not meant to import, also because they did not follow the processes right.

“My work with my team is to create enough sensitisation, and awareness on how people need to do business and to do it right. So going forward, we are going to see a totally new organisation, a set of shippers within a short time,” he said.

He noted that he was not in a hurry to dwell into policies that affect shippers which needed to be changed, but needed to sit down and go through those policies, digest and understand them better before coming out with anything.

He said that on the issue of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s increase in the exchange rate for customs duty, he stressed the need to understand why it was done, as they would not want to rush to criticise policies.

“I am an importer so I know the change that is sacred but now that I am going to speaks from an organisation, we need to understand why certain positions are taken before we make our own case,” he said.