INTERVIEW: “I want to raise the profile of Shippers’ Council to contribute to National GDP” – Pius Ukeyima, NSC boss

 

 

Segun Oladipupo

 

Barr. Pius Akuta Ukeyima is the Executive Secretary/ Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC). In this interview with journalists in Abeokuta, he revealed some of the giant steps taken by the Council since his assumption of office about six months ago.

He talked about myriad of issues ranging from the retreat held in Abeokuta to develop policies and come up with blue prints that will guide the activities of the Council in line with the President’s vision and the performance bond that it signed with the minister of Marine and Blue Economy.

He gave a peep into how he intends to transform the Council into an agency that will be contributing to the National GDP of the country in spite of the removal of the Council from government subvention.

 

Question: You signed the performance bond which forms the KPI for the ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and now you are having a retreat with your staff, how would this retreat enhance your achievement of the performance bond?

Ukeyima: The performance bond is key to pushing us to achieving our mandates as it captures all that is expected of us as a Council and what we do as a Council.

This retreat will is where we rubb minds and develop policies and come up with blue prints that will guide our activities in line with the President’s vision and the performance bond that we signed with the Minister.

The Minister is working hard, round the clock to see how he can develop this sector that has been there with us over the time but there is need to build more structures that will develop the sector towards generating revenue for the country and putting more efforts in pushing the National GDP forward.

So, there is much work to do and this gathering will give us a direction as a Council to meet up with our target and more.

Question: While speaking earlier, you talked about the need to employ more staff meanwhile it was reported that you laid off some staff when you came in. Can you tell us what happened?

Ukeyima: There are rules guiding employment process. The news was making the rounds but at first, I didn’t want to comment because it is an internal thing but I think one of the newspapers came to me in the office and I granted an interview which I suppose has actually calmed everybody down because I have not heard much about it after then.

The youth corps members who had served with us were asked to leave because they had finished their terms and we have more NYSC coming in and we needed to clear the backlog so that we can have the new ones accommodated and that news reared up its head but there was an approval to employ 45 people in the Council but the process had started but hadn’t ended as at the time some of them received their letters of appointment.

And when we came in, we met some petitions from the union and we decided to go into it and we set up a committee which looked into that and recommended that the persons should be asked to step aside pending when the process will be concluded fairly. We noticed that some of the persons that were recruited did not even participate in the written examination which was not in line with the policy of the Council. The Council is a fair Council and when people have written exams to enter the council, they should be considered and not seeing people on the streets and giving them appointments.

So, this is what happened, nobody was sacked, these people were not properly employed and were just asked to step aside. The Council is considerate to invite those people to that interview and exams to come back and participate again and if they are able to pass the exams, they will be offered the appointment. Nobody is being victimised.

Question: You said the Council would go paperless in August, how prepared is the Council to achieve that?

Ukeyima: The Council has long before now been implementing the ECM policy of the federal government. It is not new to the Council to the extent that this has been implemented over the years. All that we need to do is to further improve the technology.

As I speak to you, we have structures on ground and all we need is the culture change initiative and train our people. We just need to leverage on what we have and improve on it.

Question: On the bond you signed with the ministry, what is the timeline to deliver on it?

Ukeyima: Under the bond that we signed with the Honourable Minister, there are certain things that have been assigned to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the role of developing a policy for the Marine and Blue Economy is assigned to the ministry.

The Council is only a contributor to that role, the ministry is the majority contributor and the Minister is right on top of that role and we have had series of stakeholders’ engagements, we have had retreats in respect of that and the policy is being developed as I speak to you.

Our role is just to add up just like every other agency in the ministry and we are working together in terms of developing that policy.
The Minister has always said that he would want a policy that is workable. For instance, if you talk about reconstruction of the port, it is quite a huge resources that is needed to go into that development and this is not the kind of investment that the Nigerian government would want to put money into at the moment.

All that the minister and the agencies under him have to do is to provide the enabling environment. Private sector will be attracted so that the investment can come in handy to develop the sector.

Question: What are your driving forces, what would you want to be remembered for when you leave the Council?

Ukeyima: Talking about legacy, the major thing that I want to do going forward is the restructuring of Shippers’ Council. You know that Shippers’ Council is no longer what we used to know it for because the mandate has changed drastically. Now, we have the mandate to be the port economic regulator which means that economic activities that happen within the port domain, we are responsible for regulating them even the players.

So, we are not just looking at the welfare of shippers, looking at tariffs adjustment, we are looking at the overall economic benefits that will come out of that sector. To drive that, we need a law and the smooth passage of that law, will enhance every other thing that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council will be doing going forward. Once I have that law passed, the Shippers’ Council will truly become an agency that is raising revenue for the government.

When we start implementing the ICTN, at the end of the year, the question will be how much have we contributed to National GDP? We have to contribute, I want to raise the profile of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council so that at the time I am leaving, it will be contributing meaningfully to Nigeria’s national GDP. That is one of the major achievements I want.

Question: Some stakeholders have complained that Shippers’ Council is not visible in the port, they have offices but not occupied.
What are you going to do to make sure that the Council is present in the port to carry out its regulatory roles?

Ukeyima: Realistically speaking, Nigerian Shippers’ Council is visible in the port, we are not out of the port, our officers go there for enforcement regularly.

 

Question: The PSTT seem to have gone moribund, should we still be hopeful that you will bring it back or is it dead?

 

Akutah: The PSTT is also working very well. It is not disbanded, the Co-ordinator of the task force, Moses Fadipe is here with us and he is still working with his team. Nothing has changed. If you notice, you will see that we don’t have the traffic that used to happen within the corridor for sometimes and that is due to the activities of the PSTT, it is still working, it is not moribund.

Question: You earlier mentioned the implementation of the Orosanye report and the effect on the Council, can you explain better?

 

Akutah: We have talked about funding generally over time and it is quite important. This is the right time to drive the issue of funding for the Council because the Orosanye panel report is very clear about what Shippers’ Council should do. As much as some agencies have been merged, some completely disbanded, the Council under that report is supposed to generate its revenue and be self-funded.

So, more than anytime before, it is now that the Council needs to raise their own revenue profile and begin to raise their funding.

The one percent (1%) stabilisation fund is a statutory funding but over time, the agency has not been able to implement that one percent freight stabilisation fee. So, it is the best time for us to go and implement that now.

The 7% port development levy that we are using tight now as the source of funding, we can leave that because according to Orosanye panel, we are not supposed to be given subvention from that subhead.

So, once we achieve our one percent freight stabilisation fee which is statutory, we are not going to ask for the port development levy anymore. We will conform ourselves to what the report says we should do and begin to look for other sources of funding. I think we have the responsibility to raise fund not only to fund the agency but the budget as well.

Question: How do you intend to ensure quick evacuation of cargo from the port because in some terminals in Tincan, you can take your cargo out within 48 hours while it takes weeks in some others. How do you intend to ensure that there is a standard for cargo evacuation from the port?

Akutah: On cargo evacuation, we set the standards and the shipping companies and terminal operators are supposed to work. Under the ambit of the standards we have set.

So, we have turnaround time, dwell time from the entry point to the point where they move out of the ship, the terminal and when they are cleared and moved out. All of these standards have been set, what we intend to do is to continue the enforcement and continue engagement with stakeholders so that they know the value of improving the efficiency within the port sector.

It is for their good, the good of the economy and their businesses. Ours is to enforce the standards and when you go outside the standards, we will try to bring you back. Like I said earlier on, we need to look at our regulations and see how they can be business-friendly.

What the Council will be doing going forward is to ensure that we raise our revenue and raise money for the government. So, our regulations will be very friendly, economy-friendly to ensure that we take the form of revenue generating agency.

Question: You talked about establishing more Inland Dry Ports but the existing ones are not yet put into maximum use. How do you intend to maximize the functionalities of the IDPs?

Akutah: The Inland Dry Ports is one of the policies of the federal government to bring about port efficiency. We are under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement and there are opportunities for Nigerians in that agreement and if we open up our market for the whole of Africa, we should be willing to export from Nigeria.

So, the IDP project basically targets bringing shipping to the hinterlands closer to people who will engage in shipping services. Rather than bring your goods to the seaport for export, you can export them from where your farms are or wherever you are producing whatever it is. We also decongest the port by that singular action and at the same time, promote international trading activities in the hinterlands.

So, it is important for us to develop that policy and continue to move in to possibly flood our hinterlands with Inland Dry Ports but they must be actively engaged in business and people must use them, not just to construct but must be put into efficient use.

But what Nigerian Shippers’ Council does is that we don’t bring money from the government pocket to build IDPs, they are Public/Private partnership business enterprises. Some of those who come to us and say they want to build IDPs are sometimes state governors and we must see how viable the businesses are and the locations they want to use.

For instance, in Enugu state, we have a vehicle transit area to be located at Ogbumafor and we are insisting that we must invest in vehicle transit area because the area is already is a transport hub where vehicles travelling between the North and the South do have a stop over to have a rest. So, it is better to have a vehicle transit area there where Onitsha is just a stone’s throw where trading activities are going on. So, if we have an Inland Dry Port in that area, it might not serve the purpose as much as possible.