As part of its awareness campaign, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has unveiled Online Portal for the Registration of Regulated Port Service Providers and Users.
Briefing stakeholders at Onne, Rivers State, Executive Secretary/CEO, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Barr. Pius Akutah, represented by Director, South-South Zone, Mr. Glory Onojedo, explained that the launching was one of the sensitization exercises that the Council had organized for service providers, users and other stakeholders in the sector.
The ES said: “As you are all aware, the Port as a critical infrastructure needs to be competitive, to guard against monopoly and free for potential players to enter and exit, in order to for its users to enjoy the benefit of competitive pricing and efficient service delivery.
“It is against this back drop, that the Federal Government of Nigeria, pursuant to Nigerian Shippers’ Council Act Cap N133LFN 2024 appointed the NSC as Ports Economic Regulator. The aim is to create an effective regulatory regime at Nigerian Ports for the control of tariffs, rates, charges and other related economic services.”
While affirming that similar sensitization has been held in Lagos and Port Harcourt ports, he noted that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council Port Economic Regulation 2015, Part 11 Section 4(1) mandates the Council to register all regulated Port Service Providers and Users operating at Nigerian Ports.
Barr. Akutah further opined that the new portal was a milestone for the Council as it has upgraded from manual registration to a fully automated registration platform, pointing out that the interactive nature of the platform, eliminated physical interface.
According to Akutah: “From your office desk, you can register your company online without having to visit any Council office as long as you fulfill the requirements and make the necessary payments.
“The registration exercise is in various categories and attracts a token fee as the motive is not to generate revenue but to meet the administrative charge of running the platform, among others.
“It is mandatory for all service providers and users to register and obtain a certificate of registration before they can be adjudged as legally operating at the nation’s seaports. It is therefore, important to register with the NSC to avoid being sanctioned,” Barr. Akutah stated.
