By Zika Bobby

When the Federal Government concessioned the nation’s seaports 10 years ago, many saw it as half-baked. Reason was that an Economic Regulator, being a major component of the agreement, was not in place.
By this obvious flaw, the shipping sector was robbed the services of a commercial watchdog who was to oversee the activities of the players to ensure that a level playing field was created and all parties’ respected.
Expectedly, the absence of an economic regulator gave rise to unhealthy trade practices with concessionaires, shipping agents, importers and clearing agents regularly locking horns over various abuses ranging from arbitrary hike in tariffs to delay in positioning cargo/containers for scanning, allowing them accumulate demurrage and many other unsavoury dealings. The situation was worsened with the failure of the National Assembly to pass into law the much awaited Port and Harbour Bill.
However, to rescue the nation’s ship from troubled waters, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) stepped in as an umpire and a mediator, even without any formal legislative and legal backing.
However, since the powers of the NSC was limited, some “stubborn” industry players saw it as a toothless bulldog and capitalized on their near-monopoly status to hurt their competitors because they were sure to get away with it.
Undeterred by its limitations, the council handled all disputes equitably largely through dialogues such that it became clear that the council had the wherewithal to be a substantive Economic Regulator.
From 2006 till date, the NSC has handled several disputes and resolved a good number of them and refunds in millions of dollars made to short-changed parties.
It was perhaps the excellent record of accomplishment in trade dispute resolution, coupled with suggestions from stakeholders that made former president Goodluck Jonathan to approve the designation of NSC as the Economic Regulator for the shipping sector in 2014.

Inland Container Depots
The NSC, headed by Barrister Hassan Bello has been on the forefront of establishing Inland Container Depots (ICDs), which are dry ports meant to provide shipping services to those in the hinterlands. There are six areas in the country mapped out for the project and interestingly, the first one to be published in a gazette and designated a port of origin and port of destination is the Kaduna ICD.
An interesting thing about the ICDs is that they serve the same purpose as the conventional ones by having all needed players like the Customs, NDLEA, Immigrations, Quarantine, clearing agents, etc.
The NSC boss said: “They would relive on a permanent basis, the congestion of the seaports in the sense that the cargo destined for Nigeria are not inspected at the seaports on arrival. They would be taken directly to the inland ports where there would be Customs, Immigrations, NDLEA, SON and every other member of the import community or stakeholder in the shipping business. Duties would be paid there. Now, this means that shipping is brought to the doorstep of those in the hinterland. So, if you’re in Aba, you don’t have to come to Lagos to clear your goods. You’ll be there in Aba and the containers or goods will go by trucks or by train from the seaports to the inland container depots there. Therefore, when you go to Aba inland port, Aba traders and importers will be there to open their containers for examination, scanning and pay the duties there. In the same vein, if you want to export, you don’t have to come to Lagos, you can do that from the inland port. So, it’s a revolutionary concept, which the Shippers Council has been pursuing for many years and we hope that by next year, one or two of these inland container depots or dry ports would takeoff. These inland or dry ports are in Isialangwa in Abia, Ibadan, Funtua, Kano and Maiduguri. We also have some in Kaduna, Gombe and many other places.”

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Transit parks
The NSC is also pushing for Truck Transit Parks (TTPs), a facility where trucks are parked for safety of cargo. Rather than park along the road, causing terrible traffic to motorists, the TTPs provide a better place for parking. The TTPs will have modern facilities like motels, restaurants, garages, fuel stations, conveniences, etc where drivers park and rest; the cargoes are electronically monitored. Stakeholders, at various gatherings have described the initiative as an embodiment of modern transportation.

Checking arbitrary charges
There is no doubt that one of the major gains of the NSC as an economic regulator is the fact that it has ensured that no stakeholder engages in any form of imposition of unauthorised or arbitrary charges and levies on the consumers of shipping services in the country. It has continued to wield the big stick on the excesses of the concessionaires and the foreign shipping lines. In 2014, the NSC reduced the charges of the terminal operators. Same year, NSC also increased the free period where cargo would not pay rents at the ports to five days from the erstwhile three fixed by the terminal operators. As if these changes were not enough, it also reviewed downwards some of their charges just as it reduced the terminal charges of the foreign shipping agencies. Furthermore, NSC also directed that they must refund container deposits not later than seven days.
This was why the pioneer Chairman of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Mr. Anthony Nwabunike lauded NSC for excellent performance as an economic regulator. Nwabunike, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees (BOT), Association of Nigerian Licensed Custom Agents (ANLCA), stated that NSC’s decision to review downwards the arbitrary charges of the service providers has made it impossible for any stakeholder to hike charges without the permission of the council.

Success
In an apparent support of the strides the council has made since it was made the economic regulator in the nation’s seaports, the Chairman of the Ports Consultative Council (PCC), Kunle Folarin said the NSC has discharged its functions as a regulator in a most professional and very efficient manner while it has sanitized the operations of the concessionaires in the maritime industry just as it has checked arbitrary and unauthorised increase in their charges and levies.
Folarin explained that the way and manner the Council has performed its role has given the Nigerian ports particularly the ones situated in Nigeria’s economic centre, Lagos the opportunity to emerge as the preferred destination for other ports in the West and Central Africa sub regions.
Past President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba, said that the task of the council ought to be upgraded to that of the economic regulation of the maritime sector because it had succeeded in enhancing the contributions of the seaports to the economy.