NAN-H-100
Charges
By Taiye Edeni
Abuja, Oct. 5, 2016 (NAN) Dr Kofi Mbiah, the Chairman, Union of African Shippers Council (UASC), says Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) should address the issue of proliferation of charges in ports.
Mbiah said this in Abuja on Wednesday at the Validation Colloquium on United Nations Convention on Contracts for International Carriage of Goods Wholly by Sea (Rotterdam Rules).
He urged the Federal Ministry of Transportation to work with the NSC to address the issue of proliferation of charges in Nigerian ports.
According to him, operators in the ports are collecting many charges that discourage importers and exporters.
“This is because the cost of the various charges will be passed to the final consumers through increase in the prices of goods.
“The challenges are more of a practical nature in terms of what happen in the ports; there is the need to ensure that there is orderliness in the ports.
“Stakeholders should dialogue with NSC, so that they can agree on rates and charges to ensure that shipping lines and other operators in the ports do not unduly charge importers and exporters.
“Proliferation of charges like terminal handling and container administration, among others, will not make Nigerian ports to be attractive to importers and exporters.
“The charges in Nigeria ports need to be properly defined; people should be made to know them at the beginning of the year and make it predictable for the importers.’’
The chairman said that the objective of the colloquium was to bring various stakeholders together to raise issues on the new Rotterdam rules and how to implement and ratify the rules.
“The objective is to bring together various stakeholders, who will be affected by the implementation of the convention; this forum is to shed light on various aspects of the convention.
“As at present, Nigeria is practicing the Hague-Visby Rules and the Hamburg Rules.
“So, there is a need for a more modern convention which is the Rotterdam Rules that address the practical relatives of international trade.
“Today, we are using containers more than any other object for shipment and the legal regime that exists presently has not adequately addressed the issue of containers.”
According to him, the Rotterdam Rules will address the issue of container revolution. (NAN)
TY/MO/NKO
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Edited by Morayo Omolade/Nkechi Okoronkwo
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