Following the appointment of the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, as the commercial regulator for the nation’s ports, the Executive Secretary of the Council, Mr. Hassan Bello, spoke with Godfrey Bivbere on a variety of issues including plans, challenges, legalities, and a host of others. Excerpt:

How does it feel becoming the commercial regulator for the ports?

Becoming the commercial regulator is a matter of meeting this very important task that has been given to the Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC). The task is simply to make the ports more efficient, look at those economic imperatives that are necessary to make our ports more efficient.

We should increase competition in the ports; guard against monopoly; provide reasonable scientific regimen for tariffs; costs of doing business in Nigerian ports should go down. The ease of doing business in Nigerian ports should be in accordance with international standards.

*Mr Hassan Bello

Our ports should be friendly and competitive in intra and inter-port competitions. There will be shorter dwelling time for cargoes and turn-around time for ships, which will increase tonnage and revenue – revenue for the government and revenue for the operators.

Our task is also to guarantee quality of service. We should set up standards and expect that services that are being rendered to consumers of shipping services are of high quality, commensurate to the costs they are paying.

We should have the pride of the saying that Nigerian ports are of international standard. We should also provide mechanisms for settlement of dispute through alternate dispute resolutions.

It is also the duty of the Shippers Council to look at the totality of investments in the ports for now and transport infrastructure later on. We should look at access to ports and recommend that the ports are linked with rail, inland waterways and good roads. We should encourage the development of modern deep-sea ports and I think we should also strive to see that there is technology, that is, electronic interface for trade facilitations facilities in our ports.

Should operators be worried about NSC’s capacity to achieve all that you have mentioned?

NSC has the capacity, but we are always going to build capacity. Capacity involves constant adaptation of your manpower to modern problems cropping up. We have built capacity for the NSC; but we still need to do more depending on the needs because they keep changing. For example, the World trade is now electronic trade.

We need to have the capacity to match the consequences of that e-trade. We should have capacity equal to or greater than that of the operators because you have to be more knowledgeable than the people you are going to regulate.

We should have context of international standards but more importantly, we should have the economic parameters because all these things we are doing is to raise the position of the ports industry and its contribution to the economy.

Do you envisage issues with the operators, because there is no enabling legislation?

I am not envisaging any legal challenges for now. The concession agreement which is the legal bedrock for port operations has made adequate provisions for the appointment of the regulator by the government and this government used that clause to appoint us.

However, the NSC Act and the regulations made pursuant to the Shippers Council could also be used to start the regulations. We are not averse to a comprehensive, modern and lucid legal framework.

We already have a draft for us to start and this will be submitted to government. The minister has the power to issue directives to make regulations pursuant to NSC Act and pursuant to the Nigerian Ports Authority Act. This is what we are going to do.Do not also forget about the NTC, Nigerian Transport Commission, which is the comprehensive Act or bill now and which the government is studying.

Some operators are being accused of operating with impunity, have you engaged stakeholders to secure their cooperation?

It is not impunity per-se. What we say is that ports are represented by many interests; the terminal operators we have engaged and spoken with them, the shipping companies are our engaging partners and we have had so many meetings here.

The idea is that it must be a democratic process. We need to have the buy-in of all the operators, the consumers and government before any major economic regulation is made.We are for consultation and communication and these two are instructive and imperative and we will never be arbitrary or unilateral in decisions we will take.

We have very important institutions. We have seen and talked with NPA and the reception we got from NPA is of course extremely warm. We are going to assist NPA to make the ports even more profitable. NOA as you know have now introduced electronic payment, a very revolutionary move so everyone is looking forward.

Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, is another important institution in the ports. In fact, all these ports are Customs ports. They have introduced revolutionary methods, ICT into cargo clearance, the PAAR system despite the pioneering problems we have passed now which will make the clearance of goods easier.

The ease of doing business in Nigerian ports is looking easier through the efforts of Customs. All of us have one thing in common, to increase the efficiency of the ports, make Nigerian ports competitive and bring down the costs of doing business in Nigeria.

It is very important that as all of us, going on the same road, we must have a supervisor or coordinator; somebody who will push for the synergy that is needed to bring about this common goal and that is the Nigeria Shippers Council.

Following the appointment of the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, as the commercial regulator for the nation’s ports, the Executive Secretary of the Council, Mr. Hassan Bello, spoke with Godfrey Bivbere on a variety of issues including plans, challenges, legalities, and a host of others.Excerpt:

How does it feel becoming the commercial regulator for the ports?

Becoming the commercial regulator is a matter of meeting this very important task that has been given to the Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC). The task is simply to make the ports more efficient, look at those economic imperatives that are necessary to make our ports more efficient.

We should increase competition in the ports; guard against monopoly; provide reasonable scientific regimen for tariffs; costs of doing business in Nigerian ports should go down. The ease of doing business in Nigerian ports should be in accordance with international standards.

Our ports should be friendly and competitive in intra and inter-port competitions. There will be shorter dwelling time for cargoes and turn-around time for ships, which will increase tonnage and revenue – revenue for the government and revenue for the operators.

Our task is also to guarantee quality of service. We should set up standards and expect that services that are being rendered to consumers of shipping services are of high quality, commensurate to the costs they are paying.

We should have the pride of the saying that Nigerian ports are of international standard. We should also provide mechanisms for settlement of dispute through alternate dispute resolutions.

It is also the duty of the Shippers Council to look at the totality of investments in the ports for now and transport infrastructure later on. We should look at access to ports and recommend that the ports are linked with rail, inland waterways and good roads. We should encourage the development of modern deep-sea ports and I think we should also strive to see that there is technology, that is, electronic interface for trade facilitations facilities in our ports.

Should operators be worried about NSC’s capacity to achieve all that you have mentioned?

NSC has the capacity, but we are always going to build capacity. Capacity involves constant adaptation of your manpower to modern problems cropping up. We have built capacity for the NSC; but we still need to do more depending on the needs because they keep changing. For example, the World trade is now electronic trade.

We need to have the capacity to match the consequences of that e-trade. We should have capacity equal to or greater than that of the operators because you have to be more knowledgeable than the people you are going to regulate.

We should have context of international standards but more importantly, we should have the economic parameters because all these things we are doing is to raise the position of the ports industry and its contribution to the economy.

Do you envisage issues with the operators, because there is no enabling legislation?

I am not envisaging any legal challenges for now. The concession agreement which is the legal bedrock for port operations has made adequate provisions for the appointment of the regulator by the government and this government used that clause to appoint us.

However, the NSC Act and the regulations made pursuant to the Shippers Council could also be used to start the regulations. We are not averse to a comprehensive, modern and lucid legal framework.

We already have a draft for us to start and this will be submitted to government. The minister has the power to issue directives to make regulations pursuant to NSC Act and pursuant to the Nigerian Ports Authority Act. This is what we are going to do.Do not also forget about the NTC, Nigerian Transport Commission, which is the comprehensive Act or bill now and which the government is studying.

Some operators are being accused of operating with impunity, have you engaged stakeholders to secure their cooperation?

It is not impunity per-se. What we say is that ports are represented by many interests; the terminal operators we have engaged and spoken with them, the shipping companies are our engaging partners and we have had so many meetings here.

The idea is that it must be a democratic process. We need to have the buy-in of all the operators, the consumers and government before any major economic regulation is made.We are for consultation and communication and these two are instructive and imperative and we will never be arbitrary or unilateral in decisions we will take.

We have very important institutions. We have seen and talked with NPA and the reception we got from NPA is of course extremely warm. We are going to assist NPA to make the ports even more profitable. NOA as you know have now introduced electronic payment, a very revolutionary move so everyone is looking forward.

Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, is another important institution in the ports. In fact, all these ports are Customs ports. They have introduced revolutionary methods, ICT into cargo clearance, the PAAR system despite the pioneering problems we have passed now which will make the clearance of goods easier.

The ease of doing business in Nigerian ports is looking easier through the efforts of Customs. All of us have one thing in common, to increase the efficiency of the ports, make Nigerian ports competitive and bring down the costs of doing business in Nigeria.

It is very important that as all of us, going on the same road, we must have a supervisor or coordinator; somebody who will push for the synergy that is needed to bring about this common goal and that is the Nigeria Shippers Council.