The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Emmanuel Jime, on Tuesday made a courtesy visit to the Chairman of Apapa Local Government, Idowu Senbanjo.
Jime said the visit was to further the cooperation and collaboration between the NSC and the Apapa Local Government.
He said the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, as port economic regulator, has the responsibility of ensuring the efficiency of service delivery at the port.
“We have developed a number of tools at the Nigerian Shippers’ Council that assists in the delivery of the mandate. One of those tools is the establishment of a document called the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM). The Nigerian Port Process Manual is a harmonisation of all the standard operating process of all the stakeholders the industry brought into a document to facilitate the conduct of business in our ports,” he said.
Jime said the Federal Government appointed NSC as the lead implementing agency of the NPPM, while the Port Standing Task Team was created for the implementation of the manual with Moses Fadipe as its National Director.
“The Port Standing Task Team (PPST) and the Nigerian Port Process Manual supervise joint boarding of vessels at the port leading to greater turn around time. They also do joint inspection, which means that all government agencies are jointly inspecting the vessels and clearance of the access road to the port. This is a key component of the work of the Port Standing Task Team because if customers cannot get access into the port and leave easily, then all the effort is in vain,” he said.
The Apapa Local Government Chairman, Idowu Senbanjo, said, “On our part, we have contributed by not allowing the good boys to collect tolls on the street of Apapa. This has helped in curtailing trailers from parking indiscriminately at the ports.”
She, however, reprimanded Federal Government agencies, including the NSC, operating in Apapa for not being fair to the residents of their host communities.
“What comes in and out of Apapa cannot be compared to what is given back to the host community,”she said.