The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Nigeria has indicated its intention to get the National Assembly to pass its bill into law so as to further accord legitimacy and recognition to its activities in the country.
Speaking on the sideline of the 2014 National Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Institute in Lagos, weekend, the President of the Institute, Major Gen. Umar Usman (rtd.) stated that once the institute succeeded in domesticating the Act in Nigeria, there would be no limit to how far the institute could go.
He said, “ I led the team of few Council members to the President of the Senate, that was sometime last year because we want to get our bill enacted. So, really, as far as our bill is concerned, it is one of the major thing that will bring us recognition of CILT”.
“By the time we succeed in domesticating this bill, getting the Act properly enacted by the National Assembly, I think the sky will be the limit for CILT Nigeria”.
Speaking on their inability to meet with the Speaker of the House of Representatives on the matter, Gen. Usman explained that the meeting was not possible because the date and time scheduled for the meeting coincided with an emergency Defence Council meeting at Abuja of which the Speaker was a member.
He however posited that arrangement was ongoing to reschedule another meeting with the House leadership which would have come up earlier than now but for the prevailing situation in the House of Representatives lately assuring that no stone would be left unturned at getting the meeting rescheduled.
On why the institute was yet to get the needed publicity across the federation, he disclosed that efforts were on to move the heavy presence of the institute up North so as to attract many qualified professionals that would key into the activities of the institute.
He added that now that CILT had acquired a liaison office at Abuja, he was optimistic that the distance which used to be a barrier for the industry professionals in the Northern part of the country would have been taken care of.
According to him,” so as it is, we have an office now at Abuja and hopefully, very shortly, we intend to attract qualified industries from the Northern sector because as it is today, the entire issues that bother on industry activities are around the southern sector”.
“So, with Abuja outpost now where we have a liaison office, we intend to actually reach out to all the other states. As it is also, we have a number of professional industry stakeholders in the North that will want to actively participate but you see, because of the distance, it has really constrained so many that will want to actively participate from the North”.
Reacting on what role the institute would play to encourage the Nigerian Shippers’ Council in their new role as the ports’ Commercial regulator, he noted that the idea behind their 2014 National Conference and Annual General meeting with the theme, “ Commercial Regulation in the Transport sector and the National Economy: Global best Practice Implementation Strategy”, was geared towards contributing to government policies and efforts in the regulation of the transport sector.
