Chairman of the Nigerian Port Consultative Council , Otunba Kunle Folarin, has called for an effective single window system at the Nigerian Ports to enable trade facilitation and global competitiveness.
Speaking at a one-day seminar organised by the Maritime Industry Advocacy Initiative in collaboration with the Nigerian Ports Authority for maritime journalists on Lagos last week, Folarin, who delivered a paper titled “Getting the Port Industry to deliver on its mandate,” noted that there had been conflicts of functions among the supervising agencies, even at the ministerial level, thus making it difficult for the industry to give value in trade as
expected.
According to him, “there are problems in the industry among the agencies because of conflicts in their enabling laws, conflicts of functions, ministerial supervision as well as interference by the National Assembly.”
The NPCC chairman said the conflicts among the agencies would always result in abandonment of projects, stressing that “The consequences hinders progress on the project Nigeria, where projects are either abandoned or unduly delayed.”
He however advised that “Inter-agency cooperation will result in high compliance level from industry operators, and there will be zero tolerance for inefficiency.”
He also said that it was important that the port community understood, explicitly, the mandate of the various agencies of government within the port system.
Speaking also at the seminar, the Chairman, Lagos Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists , Dr. Quasim Akinreti, urged the journalists to adequately report the potential of the maritime industry as a blue economy.
Akinreti noted that a robust reportage of the sector could also open new areas yet to be known for their wealth-creation in the
industry.
