Absence of port regulatory framework spurs need for passage of NTC bill

Nigerian port industry needs a regulatory framework to give powers and legal backing to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), which was appointed by the past administration as the interim economic regulator for the port, BusinessDay check reveals.

According to the check, the powers of the Council can only be effective if the National Assembly passes the National Transport Commission (NTC) Bill, which has been at the floor of the Assembly since 2007 after the bill was drafted following the port concessions regime entered into by the federal government with private investors in 2006.

Currently, the nation’s maritime industry has no laid down legal framework guiding the operators such that the government agencies often work at cross-purposes, thus the need for streamlining and coordinating of these agencies.

NTC bill, which will name the economic regulator for the transport industry, will provide for efficient operation and regulation of the sector; ensure affordable and efficient transport services; encourage fair competition based on transparent rules applied consistently across the transport and port system; improve infrastructure and service levels based on user needs and establish appropriate institutional arrangements and legislation to the governance of transport sector.

In terms of scope, NTC Bill will cater for the economic regulation of the transport sector, which includes ports; inland waterways; land transport –rail and road.

There is an urgent need for the enactment of NTC Bill, which has been abandoned in the floor of the National Assembly for over eight years of its draft, said an industry source on the basis of anonymity.

Expressing total disappointment over the poor attitude of the former members of the National Assembly Committee on Marine Transport towards the passage of NTC bill and other transport related bills, the industry source, said that Nigerians need to be holding their representatives accountable for failure to salvage the economy through the passage of relevant laws.

Listing the benefits of passing NTC bill, the source said that it will not only end the debate and contest between government agencies for supremacy, but will also focus on providing economic regulatory framework for provision of services in the transport sector.

It is important that NTC bill is passed as soon as possible to ensure that service providers and government agencies at the port will be legally compelled to provide affordable and quality services to put users, said Emma Nwabunwanne, a Lagos based importer.

Emma, who bemoaned the sufferings of importers at the port today due to high cost of doing business at the port occasioned by poor service delivery of some service providers and government agencies, also believed that the passage of NTC bill and the announcement of a regulator will help in monitoring prices of services.

This will also ensure perfect competition that will result to lower prices, better products, wider choice, greater efficiency and stimulation of innovation than would obtain under monopoly. There would be inter-port competition for same trade; intra-port competition among two or more terminals within the same port and intra-terminal competition –companies competing to provide services within the same terminal.

UZOAMAKA ANAGOR-Ewuzie