NSC Executive Secretary visits Port Harcourt, Onne Ports
…Assures stakeholders of constant engagements
By Barth Ndubuwah, Port Harcourt
The Executive Secretary (ES) of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Barr Pius Akutah has paid a 2-day working visit to Port Harcourt and Onne Ports, in what he called a familiarisation tour.
The tour basically afforded the ES the opportunity to inspect the facilities of BUA Ports and Terminal at Rivers (Port Harcourt) and Onne Ports.
The General Manager of BUA Ports and Terminal, Alh Mohammed Labo conducted the Executive Secretary round its facilities at Port Harcourt Port.
Fielding questions from journalists shortly after the inspection, the ES said he was satisfied with what he saw.
According to him, the essence of his visit was to have an on-the-spot assessment of the facilities of the Terminal Operators.
He emphasised that as the Economic Regulator of the ports, NSC cannot sit down in its comfort zone and assume that all is well at the ports.
“As an Economic Regulator of the ports and having assumed duties barely six months ago as the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, there is a need to constantly visit the ports, with a view to engaging the stakeholders in the subsector.
“The whole idea is to facilitate trade, in line with Mr President’s vision on ‘Ease of Doing Business,’ to grow the economy,” the Executive Secretary said.
The visit also took the ES to Onne Port, where he inspected the facilities of the Onne Multi-purpose Terminal (OMT) and the West Africa Container Terminal (WACT).
The Commercial Manager, Mr Innocent Ogbuji and the Operations Manager of WACT took the ES and his entourage round their facilities. The OMT Management also did the same.
They had earlier pinpointed some of their challenges, which include lack of power from the national grid, shallow berths and channels for possible expansion and poor state of the East-West Road, among others.
Addressing journalists after the inspection, Barr Akutah said he was equally pleased with the equipment put on ground by both terminal operators.
He said his administration will be driven by continuous engagement with stakeholders, pointing out that having inspected the facilities of the Port Terminals, he will now take his findings back to the Hon Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola for his prompt attention.
He assured the people that all the reservations expressed by the stakeholders at the interactive meeting on Wednesday in Port Harcourt will be addressed.
The stakeholders meeting recorded attendance from several industry players, which included different shippers associations from the Eastern Zone, comprising Delta, Calabar, Bayelsa, and Rivers.
The landlord of the ports, Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Immigration Service(NIS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANALCA), Freight Forwarders, Nigerian Police, NIMASA, among others were all in the all-important stakeholders meeting at Presidential Hotel, Port Harcourt.
