Guardian

THE Nigerian Shippers Council appeared most favoured to play the role of port industry regulator, going by feelers from the National Assembly over the weekend.

Sources close to the National Assembly said the Council is likely to be transformed to play the new role in view of its strategic functions in the sector, which are  cargo- based.

The Council was established many years ago to protect cargo interest and to prevent shippers from the exploitative tendencies of the shipping service providers.

Members of the Senate Committee on Marine Transport, led by the committee’s chairman, Senator Zanaib Kure, had listened to the challenges of under funding confronting the NSC, and directed the management of NSC to appear before the committee, in order to amend the enabling Act that established the Council to give it more powers to carry out its responsibilities.

Meanwhile, maritime stakeholders, including maritime lawyers have thrown their weight behind the Council’s (NSC) moves to transform into a commercial regulator for the ports industry.

Those who spoke on the matter said the move had become necessary to quickly fill the gap created by the absence of an effective commercial regulator in the shipping sector, and in particular the ports industry. The Council has an overwhelming capacity in terms of personnel with deep rooted knowledge in tariff regulation and structure, and are considered by stakeholders as the most ideal agency to become a commercial regulator.

A maritime lawyer, Mr. Okesanmi Ogunlana, said the Shippers Council was the only agency of government that can effectively act as a commercial regulator, because the agency had in the past been asked to perform tasks similar to commercial regulation in the ports.

Ogunlana said that past ministers of transport, in their attempt to address the excessive shipping charges on importers had asked the Council to carry out an investigation, which later exposed the abuse by multinational shipping companies.

He said when Chief Adebayo Sarumi was the Chief Executive Officer of the Council, it was asked to investigate some inappropriate charges by shipping companies.

He said government later abolished those charges, which according to him, resurfaced, because the shipping industry had remained porous without any agency to effectively check the multinational shipping agencies responsible for the excessive charges.

Another maritime lawyer, Mr. Okey Ukeh, while noting that the absence of a commercial regulator has brought untold hardship to importers, said the Council was capable of addressing the problems faced by importers under the ports concessionaries.