President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero
Leading maritime industry practitioner and sector analyst, Mr. Lucky Eyis Amiwero has called on the management of the port economic regulator, the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) to halt or reverse every illegal process of reviewing shipping charges that never followed the provision of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in respect of Local Shipping Charges,.
In a statement made available to Business Hilights.ng, Amiwero noted that there has been an MoU between providers and users of shipping/Port and related service approved by the Federal Government for use in times of charges review which NSC failed to use in the latest hike.
According to him, “The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under Articles 2(b)&4 clearly states, any other charges shall require agreement between the Parties concerned through the Nigerian Shippers Council(NSC) which must be complied with.
“Article 4: That Terminals operators may collect additional charges as may be appropriate subject to the proviso in Articles(2)(b); In line with provision of Article 2 and 4 of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), there is the need to follow the prescribed procedure as contained in the (MOU), first submitting the information of increase to the standing committee of the detailed information, why the Increase and the percentage, submitted to the Standing Committee for consideration is to review any increase.
“We refer the Government to the usual procedure of initiating increase of Local Shipping Charges (LSC), Notification of Increase as proposed is always forwarded to the Standing Committee, reference 2003 NSC/TOD/FPS/011/VOL.V/54 OF 20TH JUNE And NSC/TOD/FPS/011/VOL.35 OF 14TH April 2003 in line with article 2(b)&4 of the (MOU).
In line with Article 2(b) & 4 of the Memorandum of understanding (MOU) the request Made by Shipping Association of Nigeria(SAN), which was forwarded to the Shippers Council and the shippers Council forward same to The Technical Standing Committee(TSC) for review.
In his submission, Amiwero therefore noted that “We hereby request the suspension of any Local Shipping Charges increase, pending the review by the standing committee, which entails the detailed information of the increase the Percentage(%) and if the Increase is necessary, to be sent to the standing Committee as approved by the Federal Government.”
Business Hilights.ng reports that the petition which is addressed to the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was also copied to several port stakeholders and hierarchy of the federal government agencies.
