Shippers’ Council signs MoU with NRC for efficient cargo carriage from seaports to hinterland
Shippers' Council signs MoU with NRC for efficient cargo carriage from seaports to hinterland
Segun Oladipupo
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) on Thursday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian Railway Corporation for efficient carriage of cargoes from the seaports to the hinterland
The MoU is in line with the statutory mandates of the two agencies
In his keynote address at a One-Day Stakeholders Summit organised by the dio, the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer (ES/CEO) of the Council, Barr. Pius Ukeyima Akutah said that the Council’s Initiative through closed inter-agency collaboration, particularly with the Nigerian Railway Authority is with a view to ensuring enhanced intermodal connections and connectivity, fast track delivery of cargoes to and from inland dry ports in Nigeria
He added that it was a cheaper and cost-effective means of transportation of goods to the hinterland and specifically, the IDPs located at the hinterland, facilitation of the development of critical transport infrastructure in the hinterland of Nigeria, among others.
The theme of the summit is “Limitations of Rail Transportation of Cargoes in Nigeria.”
He said, “We should note that Rail Transportation Is efficient, economical, and safe especially for long distances and carriage of large volumes of goods. It can also reduce jong distances and carriage of large volumes of goods greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption compared
with road transportation.
“The lack of functional rail system for evacuation of cargo from the seaports to various distribution centers to the hinterlands become a problem in the shipping industry and ease of doing business in Nigeria. This has resulted in congestion at the seaports, delay in off-loading of vessels and turnaround time,.payment of demurrage, increased number of trucks and tankers on the road, traffic gridlock and high cost of doing business
“It is therefore hoped that at the end of this programme, challenges impinging the transportation of cargoes to the hinterland (IDPs) would be identified and solutions proffered.
In her welcome address, the Director, Inland Transport Services, NSC, Mrs Ify Okolue stated that the objective of the summit was to identify the challenges facing the railway infrastructure development, the role of Nigeria Customs Service towards enabling seamless movement of cargoes and reduction of costs of doing business and proffering practicable solutions to the problems.
She added that the summit was organized to open up discussions on the possibility for Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the provision of rail transport services with a view to promoting multimodal approach to cargo evacuation and distribution to the hinterland.
“With the caliber of distinguished stakeholders here present, I am very optimistic that this event will come out with far reaching resolutions that will impact positively on the development and promotion of seamless movement of cargoes from the Seaports to the Inland Dry Ports (IDPs) in Nigeria.
“I therefore call on all the participants to take advantage of this opportunity and contribute meaningfully to achieve the objective of the event,” she said.
