Akutah Says Council Has Important Role In Trade Facilitation

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

The Executive Secretary/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Barr Pius  Akutah has said the Council has an important role to play in the nation’s export  system and and trade facilitation, and assured of its commitment to promoting free flow of export shipments between Nigerian and her sister ECOWAS economies.

Akutah who made the declaration Friday, 3rd May, 2024 when a delegation of the International Trade Centre (ITC) visited him at the Council’s head office in Lagos, pledged to provide ITC all necessary support it may require to be able to satisfactorily accomplish its present assignment.

His commitment is coming on the backdrop of ITC plea that the delegation was on a fact finding mission to identify obstacles to trade facilitation across border lines within the ECOWAS region.

Noting that trade facilitation is also a major concern of the Council, Akutah pledged to provide the group all necessary support to ensure the success of its ongoing study towards mitigating the negative effects of identified bottlenecks within the cross border logistic system.

He also noted that the study will strengthen the Council’s counterpart undertakings in its effort to formalize identified informal trade along the border areas, gather statistics and plan all such initiatives geared towards expanding trade within sub region.

R-L: The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barr. Pius Akutah, presenting a plaque to the Associate Program Officer, International Trade Center (ITC), Mr. Richard Eke-Metoho; when ITC delegates paid a courtesy visit to the NSC headquarters on Friday

“Trade facilitation is one of the major aspects of what we do so we are going to give you the necessary support to achieve the success that is desired. The study will help us to plan and develop more skills in terms of what we do at the Border Information Centre. Shippers Council is a partner and I want us to take our partnership to the next level that will focus on engagement with our stakeholders”, the NSC helmsman said.

Speaking earlier, the ITC Associate Program Officer, Richard Eke-Metoho who led the delegation disclosed that the team’s ongoing study was essentially to identify bottlenecks associated with cross border trade.

He explained that the focus is to find an acceptable solution that will drive an improvement of all identified bottlenecks on the path of trade facilitation.

Meanwhile, Metoho also mentioned that his team has identified a major gender social vice associated with cross border trade in which security personnel stationed along the Seme-Krake corridor deploy sex harassment as bargaining chip for female traders to have unimpeded access into or out of Nigeria.

His words: “We have had instances where women moving goods along the Seme-Krake trade route have been sexually harassed by security officials stationed at different checkpoints.

“Officials of government agencies stationed at these routes in the border area sometimes ask for sex in exchange for allowing goods to pass.

“The situation can be that bad at the border areas for female operators”, Metoho lamented.