Hassan Bello, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) on Monday disclosed the Nigerian Shippers’ Council will be deploying its staff to shipping companies to monitor their activities.
Bello made this known during a routine visit to shipping companies in Lagos.
The shipping companies visited are the CMA CGM and the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).
According to Bello, the visit was necessitated due to complaints received from shipping company customers as regards their operations and their actions towards customers.
“This is a routine visit to shipping companies and we started with CMA CGM which is a very important shipping company. We know there are some issues and from time to time we need to discuss them especially now that we are in the peak season so to say, the Christmas and new year delivery.
“NSC has received a lot of complaints concerning the delivery of cargo especially the cost of doing business which has gone up astronomically in the country. Let me say now that the cost of doing business cannot be attributed to formal institutions like the shipping company or terminals, what we have is a failure of infrastructure especially the road leading to the port, denying access to the port.
“So there is a problem of evacuation and delivery of cargo and the Federal government is looking at that in three ways, one, the construction of the road leading to Tincan port, Oshodi-Apapa which is a little bit slow and the council will urge government to pay more attention to it.
“The Apapa port is being linked to the rail, so if we have the roads and rail done, we expect the gridlock to virtually disappear and the extortion will also disappear with it. We know that people are facing many hardships but I am urging them to have an optimistic view like I have that by March we will turn to normalcy.
“All these charges are because of these disruptions, there has never been any increase in charges of shipping company neither is there in terminal operators or other service providers but they are under the table charges. There are so much extortion by truck drivers and the shippers’ council is doing a lot in ensuring that this reduce to minimum,” he said.
He said that recently, NSC carried out strict operations about two to three weeks ago, precisely, November 9 to 13, with security operative and some persons were apprehended.
He noted that it would be a continuous exercise, adding that going forward; people would be deployed day and night to make sure this extortion was limited.
Bello said that they are not unaware of the hardship the situation had put importers and exporter and thus would be assigning staff to shipping companies and terminals to work with them to make sure that their problems are listened to and interact with customers.
He said that at CMA CGM, the NSC was happy with their level of automation which he said was 63 per cent, adding that it was what shippers’ council was focusing on.
He hoped that by next assessment, they would have gone up to 80 or 100 per cent, but not only the CMA CGM but their customers relating to them to automate their process because it takes two to tango.
He said that there was need for shipping companies to invest in Nigeria and in the totality of the port economy, urging the CMA CGM to invest at critical issues in port and cargo delivery and on the issue of holding Bay.
He noted that government agencies in the maritime industry was working together to ensure that by March 2021 first quarter, things would work well, the Nigerian Ports Authority working on the e-call up system.
Also he added that a 24-hours cargo delivery, inland water ways for barge operations to regulate their system to ensure safety, insurance and adequate charges and not be all comers’ affairs.
“If we have a multi-modal approach to cargo delivery and evacuation, through the road, rail, barges and 24-hours cargo evacuation, then by end of first quarter, all the headaches will be reduced. Also, if they problem of infrastructure is solved, then the issue of returning containers will be solved and Nigeria will not be a dumping ground,” he said.
Mr. Lionel Odeyer, Managing Director, CMA CGM Nigerian Shipping Limited said that as regards investment, the company would be having container terminal operations by 2023 at the Lekki Deep Port.
He noted that they would increase their capacity in Nigeria, have holding bays and would encourage their customers to do transactions online.
He urged the shippers’ council boss to always visit and engage with them as it would help them tackle issues.
Photo: The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’Council (NSC), Barr. Hassan Bello.
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