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Poor Synergy Among Govt Agencies Responsible For Corruption At Ports–Shippers Council

Oluwasina Phillip

The Nigerian Shippers’ Council has attributed the high corrupt practices at the port to lack of synergy among government agencies.

The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Hassan Bello, said this at a press briefing in Abuja.

Bello said that apart from the issue of obsolete equipment which made ease of doing business policy of the government difficult, the physical/analogue conduct of businesses at the ports by agencies involved was costing Nigeria huge sum of money.

He said, “We have been struggling at the ports. The ports have been riddled with too much corruption, some of the laws governing operations are not transparent, the equipment are relics and we are still doing many things manually. These fall short of the global best practices.”

According to him, embracing the full use of technology at the ports is critical to promoting a viable port system.

He further stated that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council will ensure that the berthing time at the Port was reduced to the barest minimum.

“We want joint boarding and joint examination of vessels. It will cut down sharp practices and corruption.

“It should be about NIMASA, Immigration, Port Health Services and NDLEA, and not all-comers affairs anymore.

“The more you clear ships quickly, the more they come and that means more money for the country. The era when people walked leisurely into the ports to carry out examinations of vessels is over,” he said.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Nigeria Shippers’ Council had vowed to enforce the implementation of the recently launched Nigerian Port Sector Manual.

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