Nigerian Shippers Council has sought the support of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration (CIoTA) for a law on carriage of goods by road.
Hassan Bello, Executive Secretary of the council made the proposal for bill on the subject while delivering a goodwill message at the opening session of ongoing maiden summit of CIoTA in Abuja.
Bello who said a bill for the proposed law will be sent to CIoTA for inputs disclosed that it is intended to ensure harmonized standards in cost and guarantee efficiency in the nation’s road haulage system .
According to him, the bill will be titled “Carriage of Goods by road” and will determine the status of carrier’s liabilities with intention to improve on service delivery and addressing possible disputes emanating from carriage by roads contracts or accidents.
“We must adjust our transport system in Nigeria. How much does it cost to convey a container load of goods from Maiduguri to Kano? Nobody knows because there is no indication to show how much it would cost. There is no regulation, no standardization or liability regime if there was an accident
“The reason we don’t have certified trucking systems with modern truck transit parks is as a result of absence of professionals. Nigeria is in competition with the rest of the world.
“We can’t live in isolation and our transport system says a lot about the nation. Modern transportation system affect the economy just as lousy transport systems also affect the economy
“Transportation is central to every nation’s economy. However, the contribution of Nigeria’s transport sector to economic growth isn’t acceptable. CIoTA should look at the nation’s economy and situate transport solutions to address the challenges” Bello said.
He added that NSC produced the bill to support the carriage of goods by land and eliminate the numerous challenges in the system, assuring that CIoTA would have a role to play in this advocacy and several others in partnership with Shippers’ Council.
The NSC boss also lamented that most challenges in the nation’s transport sector including Lagos port access chaos and obsolete port infrastructure would have been addressed if Nigeria had a focused professional transport body with legal framework like CIoTA.
Meanwhile, the CIoTA President, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, has pledged to utilize its charter to create massive employment in the nation’s transport sector.
The CIoTA boss stressed this in his welcome address at the National Transport Summit in Abuja, noting that the Institute would maximize its status as the only chartered professional body to explore strategies to augment employment opportunities in transportation while eliminating touts and unprofessionals across all modes of transportation in the country.
Dr. Jamoh described the attainment of CIoTA Act as a new era for transportation in the country, assuring that the Institute would engage the Ministry of Education to standardize the curriculum of transport courses to guarantee professionalism among transport practitioners.
While commending President Muhammadu Buhari for ground breaking ceremony of the University of Transportation to be cited in the Daura, Katsina State, he stressed that the development was apt and timely as it underscored the need to enshrine professionalism across all modes of transportation in the country.