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(NAN) Shipping companies in Niger Republic are to return to Nigerian ports in October for cargo clearance, 10 years after they pulled out of Nigeria.
A Representative of the national shipping council of Niger Republic, Idi Hamissou, made the disclosure in an interview with a correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ikeja on Sunday.
Mr. Hamissou spoke to NAN on the sidelines of a forum with media executives, hosted by the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shipping Council (NSC), Hassan Bello, to announce the unveiling of reforms at Nigerian ports.
The envoy said that shipping companies in his country had resolved to return to Nigeria to do business, following the latest reforms being implemented by the NSC.
Nigerian ports have for years been notorious for imposing a regime of taxations and sustaining a legacy of under-hand activities.
The development forced many shipping companies to relocate to neighbouring countries, especially Benin Republic, which now handles over 40 per cent of cargo meant for Nigeria, analysts say.
“We had used Nigerian ports since 1958 but the concessioning of the ports drove our shipping companies out of Nigeria in 2006.
“But going to Togo, Ghana and even Cameroon has not been easy for our shipping companies, so we’re returning to Nigerian ports next month, to be fully on ground in October.”
Mr. Hamissou said Niger Republic and Nigeria shared a strategic land border, spanning some 1,600 km, making it imperative for the two nations to take advantage of business opportunities existing between them.
Mr. Bello said the NSC had spent about one billion naira in the past one year on ICT infrastructure to ease the stress of doing business at the ports.
He noted that agencies at the ports would eventually be pruned from 10 to 2.
He said the trucking system at the ports had also been overhauled, explaining that every truck operator would have no fewer than six trucks to be allowed to operate at the ports.
He said: “We’re working with the National Automotive Council on the matter because having 7,000 trucks daily on the Apapa-Lagos axis is unimaginable.
“We have to increase the efficiency of the ports to boost business at Nigerian ports; we are asking for a review of the Act establishing the NSC to give us teeth to bite.”
The executive secretary disclosed that the NSC was also working with the governments of Kogi, Kaduna and Enugu States for the development of parks for trucks conveying cargo as part of efforts to remove articulated vehicles from highways.
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