The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has given an indication of its preparedness to launch Standard Operating Procedure for all service providers including government agencies operating at the Nigerian ports soon.
The Assistant Director Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, Chief Cajethan Agu who disclosed this while fielding questions from stakeholders at a one day sensitization seminar organized by the NSC in Lagos for freight forwarders with the theme,”Industry Best practices and Ethical Standard Requirements in the Freight Forwarding Profession”, said the move was to improved standard of doing business predictability at the port.
Agu however informed that the move was a joint effort of all the government agencies operating at the nation’s port adding that the Council had received input from all the government agencies as well as from the port service providers which had been put together and would soon be launched at Abuja.
“We have received inputs from the government agencies operating at the ports, we have received input from the ports service providers and they have been put together, very soon we are going to launch it. It will be launched in Abuja under the Chairmanship of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and once we get his permission to launch it, we make it public and we also make copies of the Standard Operating Procedure to all the stakeholders, to importers, to exporters, to freight forwarders and to even the service providers.
“So that if you are going to approach the customs, you already know what is their procedure. If you are going to the shipping companies, you know what you are expected because if you know the procedure, you can never be delayed”, he explained.
When asked if the Standard Operating Procedure includes the standard charges for whatever services one needed at the port, he said,” No, when we are talking of Standard Operating Procedure, we are talking of timelines of doing business. Like in the customs, when you come, you fill the SGD, how long will it take? After filing the SGD, how long does it take to process it?
“The essence is if there is delay, even you, you will know and you will ask questions. We are talking of procedure and documentation not necessarily on charges. Some of these charges are statutory, NPA charges for instance are statutory, customs charges are statutory but in terms of regulated charges that are provided, these are the ones we can say it is based on approved tariff rates which the Nigerian Shippers’ Council is going to sit down with them and agree on a rate and also make it public”.
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