NSC targets 100% automation of port operations for ease of business
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), the economic regulator for the port, says it’s determined to establish an automated process in the port to curb corruption and improve the ease of doing business.
The council’s hope, BusinessDay gathered was as a result of a renewed determination driven by series of reports on Nigerian seaports, which attributed the growing rate of substandard practices in the port to the continued use of manual inspection and clearing procedures in the nation’s seaports.
Shippers’ Council supports the building and institutionalising of an automated port system, where shippers and agents do not need to be at the port to clear and take delivery of their consignments, said Hassan Bello, executive secretary of the NSC at session with some shippers, the Council’s staff and other stakeholders in Aba recently.
“This is because human contact at the port brings a lot of inefficiency and probably may be the reason for corruption at the port. Our ports are looking forward to a time when we can become efficient and competitive within the African continent. We will introduce the appropriate technology that would bring transparency, block all the loopholes for revenue leakages, and ensure that corruption in the port would be a thing of the past, Bello explained.”
The NSC boss disclosed that the Federal Ministry of Transportation led-by Rotimi Amaechi is focused on developing the proposed National Single Window, which he said would help to reduce human contact that also encourage corruption at the ports.
“The National Single Window, when established, would ensure that even the payment of services at the ports would be made electronic so that substandard and unwholesome practices at the ports will reduce, and this would help transform Nigerian ports to modern seaports,” he added.
However, reacting to the earlier presentation made by Ify Agatha Okolue, coordinator, South-East zone of the NSC, Bello said that Aba office has dominated discussion in the Council’s headquarters such that NSC has concluded all the arrangements to acquire the Aba zonal office, as contained in 2017 budget.
“We are going to write to the Federal Ministry of Transportation and involve the Ministry of Works as well as property valuers, who were detailed to value the property for onward acquisition by the Council. We are currently waiting for the approval to come from the ministerial tenders’ board of the Federal Ministry of Transportation. This building, which we have rented over the years, will be ours in the near future. And with the position of the building and the un-utilised space therein, we are going to transform it into an edifice, where the Council is going to be making money out of it,” he noted.
While noting that the Council has two important projects in the zone, and they include the Inland Port in Isiala-Ngwa and the Truck Transit Park in Oboloafor, Enugu State, Bello assured the staff that the Council has also decided to build a born-hole, send project vehicles to the zonal office in Aba, and also tackle other domestic issues that encumbers the smooth operation of the of NSC in the zone.
In her presentation, Ify Okolue solicited for assistance of the NSC boss in some issues, which according to her, requires ‘urgent attentions’ and they include the acquisition of Aba zonal office building, sinking born-hole for office use, acquisition of project vehicles.
Others include the employment of more drivers, in Enugu and Onitsha offices, redeployment of additional staff for the zone, training and retraining of staff, employment of security personnel and provision of alternate source of power.
Bello, who further commended the zonal coordinator, said that her redeployment to the zonal office was deliberate owing to the fact that the Council needs people of her caliber that can turn things around, and someone is a team leader with quality managerial ability.
Uzoamaka Anagor-Ewuzie