Nigeria Shippers’ Council Collaborates with NRC to Ensure Efficient Rail Transport Integration in Ports

Nigeria Shippers’ Council Collaborates with NRC to Ensure Efficient Rail Transport Integration in Ports

• Sign MoU to tackle challenges on cost of rail transportation

BY OUR REPORTER

The Executive Secretary, Nigeria Shippers’ Council/CEO (NSC), Barr Pius Akutah, has disclosed that the federal government has commenced strategic moves towards improving transportation of goods via the railways.
Akutah insisted that while government is promoting trade facilitation activities , it was also interested in improving on transport infrastructures in the hinterland to be able to decongest the ports.

The ES said that the target is for goods coming into the country to be freely transported to the hinterland by using the Inland Dry Ports (IDPs) as developed by the Council.

This much was said at a one day stakeholders sensitization summit organised by the ports economic regulator in collaboration with the Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC), under the theme, “Limitations to Rail Transportation of Cargo in Nigeria.”

The NSC and the NRC are working together to develop structures and policies along (working) lines while returning back to the use of rail systems to move cargoes into the hinterland.
Both agencies believe that the best way to go in terms of cargo movement across the nation is to encourage the use of rail transport. Akutah disclosed that rail transport remains the best in terms of safety of cargoes, cost and efficiency.

One of the focal points of the day was the signing of the MOU between the Council and NRC.
The MOU is designed to tackle the challenges of cost of transportation in doing business for Nigerian Shippers.
It is also to ensure the return of rail transportation in its effectiveness back to the country.
Akutah pointed out that the government is focusing on promoting export activities.
He said that this was because over the years Nigeria has been importing goods and services from all over the world without growing it’s own export industry at the same pace.

Akutah explained that by focusing on exports, government will be able to take advantage of the opportunities inherent to shippers through the Africa free Continental Trade Agreement (AfCTA).
According to him:
“We have opened our markets. Africa has a free market today and Nigeria market is open to the whole of Africa.”, he said.

Akutah added that the major challenge the Nigeria Shippers face today is the issue of cost of transportation of goods from the hinterland to the seaports.

The Shippers’ Council Boss said the Council is set to advise the government on ways of promoting trade connections and connectivities from the Seaports to the hinterland.
Taking a thrust at policy generation, Akutah said the NSC is working on a new policy guideline that would tackle the deficits in infrastructure.

Quoting him, “You will see that even seaports are decayed from years of abandonment. So it is a huge investment.
“But the major thing that the Ministry is doing is to put a policy in place that will promote private sector participation because government alone can not fund this infrastructural deficit.”
Akutah assured that the Council will provide an enabling environment for private sector participation and for some of the critical infrastructures like the IDPs to bring shipping facilities closer to the hinterland for the benefit of shippers,” he stated.

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