The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Emmanuel Jime, has charged Union of African Shippers Council (UASC) to correct the imbalance in trade that exists between Africa and the rest of the World.
Jime said this at the Committee of Experts Meeting; Expanded Standing Committee Meeting and Mini-Sensitisation Workshop on African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in Abuja on Tuesday.
”The UASC has a big role to play in promoting the implementation of AfCFTA to the benefit of her member countries.
”As we are all aware, there is huge imbalance in trade between Africa and the rest of the World.
”We need to correct this anomaly through aggressive sensitisation and putting in place relevant processes and infrastructure to make trade within the sub-region easier and by extension to the entire continent.
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”I would like to urge all participants to make submissions with practical country experiences.
” To enable us develop frameworks that would address most of our peculiar challenges and come up with comprehensive resolutions,” he said.
According to shippers council boss, the meeting provides another platform for members to interact and share information on Transport trends that will guide informed decision making.
Jime said: ”We cannot continue to remain at the mercy of foreign shipping lines to determine the fate of our trade and transport through imposition of unreasonable charges and surcharges.
”There is need to scrutinise every details involved in determining the cost of services rendered at our ports.
”We need to make scientific comparison with other ports of the World and arrive at acceptable rates for mutually beneficial transactions.”
He reiterated the need to leverage on relevant technologies to increase efficiency, advice our various governments on required policies and regulations to boost our trade and transport sector.
He added that this would also discourage the continuous implementation of processes that contribute to delays and high cost of doing business at the ports.
The Secretary General, UASC, Mr. Giscard Lilian, while urging full participation of delegates at the meeting, expressed hope that the workshop would provide the expected results.
He said the Union was already embarking on activities aimed at bringing solutions to some of the challenges faced within the region.
”We must continue our efforts if we want a better result of reducing cost of shipping.
”We also need to ensure that there is proper political will of the various governments to make this work, “Lilian said.
Also, Mr. Jean Koffi, Secretary-General, Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA), called for collaboration of member countries to surmount the various challenges.
Koffi also urged delegates to contribute their efforts to enable the committee reach the required resolutions.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the UASC is made up of 19 countries in the African region.
The two-day meeting was attended by key stakeholders and delegates in the African sub-region. (NAN)
