The Federal Government, via the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), is set to inaugurate the Ports and Customs Efficiency Committee (PCEC) to enhance the ease of doing business at Nigerian seaports.
The event, which is set to take place at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) headquarters in Lagos State, will be chaired by the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Kashim Shettima.
FG recently revealed that the committee would be in charge of guaranteeing sustainable reforms and improving the ease of doing business at Nigeria’s seaports.
The formation of the Ports and Customs Efficiency Committee represents a key success in FG’s efforts to enhance port operations and decrease its ineffective activities, while aiding trade-led economic development, and it will be a gathering of 50 key stakeholders, including government agency leaders and industry experts from across the port and logistics value chain.
The initiative is in accordance with the PEBEC’s aim to get rid of all kinds of bureaucracies stifling the industry, while also enhancing the country’s competitiveness on the global stage. The committee will mainly concentrate on highlighting key obstacles in the ports/customs business and coming up with solutions to eradicate these barriers.
According to the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, the PCEC will function as a public-private partnership model that will aid collaboration, guarantee accountability and step up service delivery at Nigerian ports. The committee has since been tasked with decreasing cargo dwell times, ensuring streamlined processes, boosting transparency, and fostering a better customer experience.
The Managing Director/CEO, the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, hailed the idea behind the initiative, while explaining how it strategically aligns with the ongoing port reforms his agency is overseeing.
Expressing delight at the opportunity to host the progressive meeting, Abubakar maintained that NPA remains dedicated to eradicating all kinds of obstacles that obstruct a seamless trade experience in the country.
“We are greatly delighted to host this all-important collaborative process-improvement meeting, as it is very much in tandem with our efforts at eliminating bottlenecks and bursting red tapes on the path of trade facilitation,” he said.
Nigeria’s VP, Kashim Shettima added, “By improving efficiencies in our ports, we can drastically reduce the average cargo dwell time and turnover time for customers, eliminate duplication of documentation and manual processes, and ensure customers’ satisfaction.
This is not just another one of our reforms, but this is about resilience, it’s about unlocking potential opportunities, and enhancing Nigeria’s economy. This is not just a committee made up of government force for a difference, this also has a lot of private sector stakeholders.
It is a call to action for terminal operators to improve infrastructure and for shipping companies to increase efficiency so as to reduce delays, for freight forwarders to uphold compliance, and for regulators to reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks. It is a call for shared ownership of our shared problem and a commitment to deliver a shared solution.”
