Shippers’ Council advocates overhaul of trucking system

The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) on Friday called for overhaul of trucking system in the country.

Director, Commercial Shipping Services of the NSC, Mrs. Dabney Shall-Holma made the call while receiving executive officers of the Customs Consultative Committee (CCC) at the headquarters of the council in Lagos.

She gave the assurance that in the next few weeks, a report would be released identifying the kind of truck structure that would be suitable for the country.

Shall-Holma said that a group of consultants was working with the council on the structure.

She said the council was fed up with having trucks not maintained for up to 20 years.

Shall-Holma also urged practitioners in the maritime industry to play a major role in building capacities. According to her, the most important thing for the maritime sub-sector is to identify which of the aspects of capacity building should be focused on.

“The value chain should be identified for only Nigerians. We had said no one should do freight forwarding except he is a Nigerian,” Shall-Holma said.

She said that the invasion of freight forwarding by foreigners had pushed many Nigerian practitioners out of the business.

Vice Chairman of the committee, Eugene Nweke said that the visit was to afford the NSC and the committee an opportunity to share opinions on what should be 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 pursuant to the actualisation of your mandate as a port economic regulator,” he said.

He identified poor port access road and common user roads as factors impeding trade facilitation and promoting high cost of doing business at the ports.

According to him, other factors are poor traffic management, poor crowd control, corruption and unsystematic port and trade policies.

“Today, the size and efficiency of a port is an indication of how successful the surrounding regions are.

“With the volume of world trade on the sea, the ports are vital components in the shipping business,” Nweke said.



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