By Uzor Odigbo
Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Hon. Emmanuel Jime extolled the virtues of the management staff of the organisation to the Minister of Marine & Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola during his visit to the agency on Wednesday.
In his remarks, Jime told the Minister that for him to succeed in his assignment in the new ministry, he needed the input and contributions of the Directors.
His said, “The Ministry of Marine & Blue Economy is Avery strategic ministry. This ministry was created because of the recognition.
“This agency, I say to you with greatest humility is the laboratory where policy making in this industry that drives the Marine space is actually cultivated.
“You see these gentlemen and sisters sitting before you are very knowledgeable Directors and I confess to you and testify that in my humble opinion, they are some of the best public servants you can ever meet anywhere.
“They have assisted me in no small way to do a little that we have done in the past.
The Council also identified Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) and the Shippers’ Complaint unit as parts of the vibrant units of the age.
The agency stated that the two departments have been exceptional in their performance.
Recall that the Minister visited the headquarters of the Council in Lagos, on Wednesday.
Reeling out the performance index and plans of the Council to the minister on behalf of the Executive Secretary, Emmanuel Jime, Rotimi Anifowose noted the areas that the two units have intervened on behalf of shippers and how they have saved the economy revenue losses.
On the implementation of the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM), he maintained that the Council has been able to intervene for Shippers, saving them up to N5 4 billion within two years in vessel demurrage.
He added that PSTT has been able to engender a new order of transparency in vessel and cargo clearance processes in the port.
According to Anifowose, the vessel waiting time has been drastically reduced from 7 days to hours.
“Concerning the Port Process Manual, we have been able to save the Nigerian Economy in vessel demurrage, an average of $20,000 between year 2021 and 2022. This ultimately translates to $12,350,000 which is over N5.4 billion at 2022 official exchange rate.
“The average time is reduced from between 7 to 20 days to 1day to 4 hours. We have been able to negotiate out of court settlement with some stakeholders such as Maersk Nigeria Limited and APM Terminals. “
Speaking further, he averred that the Complaints Unit have been able to save stakeholders over N2.3 billion over the years.
“We have handled complaints and I am happy to announce to you sir that over the course of the past years, we have been able to save stakeholders the sum of N2,397,828,976.23k,” he said.
On digitisation of the port process, he enthused that the port can boast of about 90 percent automation.
“We promoted digitisation and automation of all port processes, this is very important and we wish to report that the digitisation covers among others, digitisation of cargo release process and digitisation of manifest submission.
“All agents of terminals have achieved almost 100 percent of their cargo release process. We are happy that sister agencies like NIMASA and NPA have digitalised their manifest process in recognition of Nigerian Shippers’ Council ‘s regulatory responsibility, ” he submitted
