The Nigerian Shippers’ Council says that it is working to ensure that investments in the maritime sector grow to $10 billion in the next five years.
The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the NSC, Mr Pius Akutah, told journalists in Lagos during a media interaction to mark his one year in office that already the agency has started engaging with some stakeholders who are on the same page with the agency.
He stated that the decision is part of their five-year activities and that the agency is having a new five-year programme that will project its activities in the next five years.
Akutah stressed that the programme would focus primarily on the agency’s role as a port economic regulator.
“In terms of facilitating trade and ensuring that business investments in this sector grow to a maximum of over $10bn in the next five years. We have already started talking to some stakeholders who are on the same page with us,” Akutah stated.
He disclosed that the council has saved over N40 billion last year from party charter fees.
He also thanked the management team of the agency for making that possible.
Akutah mentioned that the agency was able to make savings through the app it introduced in the last eight to nine months.
He added that the application has helped to automate the system for calculation of the reasonableness of freight, charter, fees, and all that.
Akutah, however, stated that logistics have posed a serious threat to Nigeria benefiting from the full potential of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement Area platform, which is valued to have a combined Gross Domestic Product of $3.4tn.
“The implementation of the AfCFTA, one of the focus and one of the areas of failure, if we don’t act very fast, would be the issue of maritime logistics because you will see that right now connectivity within the African region is a major challenge,” he said.
GIK/APA