The Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the International Trade Centre ITC are synergizing to curb incidents that mitigate trade barriers within the Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS in order to boost cross border trade within the region.
Speaking during a meeting with officials of the ITC, who were on a working visit to the Council’s Apapa headquarters recently, the Executive Secretary/CEO of the Council, Barr Pius Akutah, said the Council was ready to accord necessary support to the ITC in its efforts to address issues of cross border trade within the ECOWAS region.
The NSC-boss argued that it had become expedient to eliminate all trade barriers not only within the ECOWAS region but across the African continent in order to improve intra -regional agricultural trade at border crossing points.
He pointed out during the meeting that his Council holds strongly to trade facilitation as a major initiative of the ports economic regulator.
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Akuta promised to ensure that the Council provides necessary support to ensure the success of the study by ITC.
He said that the study will strengthen the Council’s efforts to gather statistics, formalize informal trade at and plan for trade volumes.
With the focus of the study on agricultural products, Akutah said this was a significant area with a lot of potential for Nigeria, not only in the African region but equally globally.
He said the study will assist develop skills and improve operations at the Border Information Centre which the Council manages.
“Trade facilitation is one of the major aspects of what we do so we are going to give you the necessary support to achieve the success that is desired.
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“The study will help us to plan and develop more skills in terms of what we do at the Border Information Centre. The Shippers Council is a partner and I want us to take our partnership to the next level that will focus on engagement with our stakeholders”, the NSC-boss said.
Meanwhile, leader of the ITC and Program Officer, Richard Eke- Metoho, explained during the meeting that the team wants to identify areas for improvement in trade facilitation, adding that border crossing points was part of it.
He said that the NSC was identified in view of its position of collecting data as it manages the border information centre at Seme-Krake border.
He said that the challenges being faced by traders and truck drivers have been identified at the Seme-Krake border.
