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| From Left Director Commercial Shipping Services, Nigeria Shippers Council Mrs. Dabnay Shall Holma, Vice Chairman , Customs Consultative Council (CCC), Chief Eugene Nweke and Secretary of CCC, Sir Jude Maduka at CCC Working Visit To the Nigeria Shipper Council In Lagos Yesterday. |
As part of the new port order, the Nigeria Shippers’ Council has commenced plans towards indigenisation of freight forwarding in the Nigeria.
Director, Commercial Shipping Services of the council; Mrs. Dabney Shall Holma made this known during a meeting with members of the Customs Consultative Committee (CCC) led by its vice chairman; Chief Eugene Nweke in Lagos on Friday.
Shal Holma said that a decision was taken to address the issue of foreign participation in freight forwarding in Nigeria, adding that the council is only waiting for implementation.
According to her, the Nigeria Shippers’ Council is coming up with a template that will outlaw participation of foreigners in freight forwarding in the country.
She urged freight forwarding practitioners and the associations to build capacity for their respective members.
She said; "We cannot rely on the multinationals to build capacity, because they will not do it, they will continue to hire and fire"
"Most importantly and critical in the development of the maritime sub sector is to identify which of the aspect in the value chain should be set aside for Nigerians"
"But I can tell you that the Nigeria Shippers Council has identified that factor and we are saying that nobody should do freight forwarding except he is a Nigerian", Shall Holma affirmed.
She said the only way out for Nigerians to partake fully in total logistics chain is to bar the foreigners from certain activities in freight forwarding practice.
She chided the authorities that issue licenses to the foreign operators, adding that the jobs are not even enough for Nigerian freight forwarding practitioners.
"Our teeming youths don't have jobs in logistics, but you have a shipping company that has a terminal, that has trucks, that has a logistics company and also a de-consolidation centre and it’s a total logistics from end to end and that completely leaves the Nigerian populace out of that business", she lamented.
"And that is why is so difficult for all of us to articulate how much of the trade is coming into the economic system of Nigeria, she added.
Speaking earlier, vice chairman of the CCC team; Eugene Nweke identified poor port access and common-user road as factors impeding trade facilitation at the port.
Nweke who also doubles as the president of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) identified poor port access and common user roads as factors impeding trade facilitation and promoting high cost of doing business at the port.
According to him, high cost of doing business at the port cannot be reduced except when the challenges are surmounted.
He said, "to a large extent, this interactive session will afford us the privileged to share with you from a vantage position what we posit as efficient port operational performance indicators and an ideal shipping service.
"Equally, we believe that this session will create a convenient window for us to make useful contributions pursuance to the actualization of your mandate as a port economic regulator.
"Others causes are poor traffic management, poor crowd control, corruption unsystematic port and trade policies.http://shippingposition.com.ng/article/shippers%E2%80%99-council-set-indigenise-freight-forwarding
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