The Nigerian Maritime sector’s economic regulators, the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) has disclosed that it would commence enforcement of sanctions on service providers and port users who are yet to be registered with the Council by July 2024.
The Executive Secretary\Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Council, Pius Akutah made this known during a sensitization of stakeholders on registration of regulated port service providers and users, in Apapa.
Akutah who was represented by the Director, Consumer Affairs Department, Chief Carjetan Agu, noted that the National Assembly and the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy had approached the agency since December, demanding a comprehensive data of all port practitioners and service providers.
He said that the essence of the ongoing sensitization is to bring all practitioners to register with the Council or risk applicable sanctions, lamenting that only 185 port operators are registered with the Council.
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His words: “This has been an ongoing service, and this sensitization has taken us to Calabar, Port Harcourt, and Warri. This is the first one we are doing in Lagos. This particular sensitization is for terminal operators, shipping companies, off-dock terminal operators and Stevedoring companies.”
“In 2015, the Council was appointed port economic regulator and the mandate given to the council was to develop a regulatory regime for the control of tariff rates, charges and other economic activities. In doing this, one of its roles is to register all service providers in the sector.”
“If you are a regulator, you are supposed to know your customers, it is in this spirit that we are carrying out this exercise. When we started, it was a manual process, but we have now automated the registration process. Within minutes, even from the comfort of your homes, you can go through the registration process, make payments and equally print your certificate by yourself.”
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He maintained that registration is compulsory, adding they Council has gone through the list of those registered and realized that many people are yet to register with us.
“Shippers Council believes in persuasion and not coercion, but when we discover that the level of compliance is low, we might be forced to uphold the law, because their are certain provisions that prescribes punishment for non-registration.
“One of the benefits of registration is passing of information. Also in the past, people bring in offensive goods at the port and upon investigation, they will say they were imported by faceless Shippers. But after this registration, the issue of faceless Shippers will become a thing of the past” he said.
Also speaking, Deputy Director, Consumer Affairs Department of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Mr Celestine Akujobi said that in December 2023, the National Assembly demanded a list of all the port service providers, freight forwarders, terminal operators.
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“We are creating this awareness and sensitization for practitioners, so that when enforcement starts, nobody would say that they are not aware. The emphasis of this registration platform is not for money making, and that is why the rates applicable are so low.”
“In terms of sanctions, we have not been carrying out our duty, this is because there are sanctions applicable for non-registration, we just want to make sure we carry everyone along” he said
Part of the sanctions include; withdrawal of NSC’s services from defaulters, stopping such agency or company from operating at the port, blacklisting defaulters and publishing their names on national newspapers, among others.
He added that any shipping company or terminal operator that offers services to unregistered port service providers and users will also be sanctioned.
