Ministry lauds Shippers’ Council initiatives

Newly appointed Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, yesterday commended the Nigerian Shippers Council for its promotion of the establishment of Vehicle Transit Areas (VTA) amongst other initiatives aimed at trade facilitation to boost the nation’s economy and the delivery of high quality service to shippers.

A statement made available to us by the public relations department of the council said Ajani made the commendation while responding to the briefing  received from the Executive Secretary/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Hassan Bello, who led a team of top management staff to the Federal Ministry of Transportation.

Ajani who spoke in response to the briefing she received from the ES/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, who led a team of top management staff to the Federal Ministry of Transportation, expressed delight about the achievements of the Council and encouraged the management to press ahead with the impressive work they are doing, assuring them of the Ministry’s support.

The Perm Sec was reportedly expressed delight about the achievements of the Council and encouraged the management to continue with the impressive work they are doing, assuring them of the ministry’s support.

Shippers’ Council Head, Public Relations,  Rakiya Zubairu in the statement said Bello in his presentation, spoke about various ongoing projects and initiatives currently embarked upon by the Council, including efforts at achieving  24-hour port operations to address ports congestion, ongoing efforts to achieve multimodal transportation of goods to and from the ports and digitalization of port processes to achieve transparency and easy of doing business.

The council’s helmsman was quoted as having also informed the new perm sec of few system challenges, particularly resistance to regulation by port users and stakeholders. The statement note that Ajani was particularly excited about the prospect of the actualization of VTAs in various parts of Nigeria, which will lead to significant reduction of road traffic accidents’ aside the prospect of ushering in higher sanity on roads and the creation of employment.

It will be recalled that Bello last week was also the Government House Aluasa Ikeja  to brief Gov. Babajide San wo-Olu of key port issues, including some of the critical areas he tabled before the newly appointed perm sec in Abuja. In particular, Bello emphasized digitalization of the port and traffic management, noting that “if infrastructure is not coordinated or integrated, very little progress will be made”.

Commending both Lagos State and the Federal Government, the NSC boss called attention to the completion of the ports access roads rehabilitation by the Federal Government. Bello used the opportunity to present to Governor Sanwo-Olu and his team the 2015 NSC-Commissioned National Freight Information and Transport Hub (NAFITH) report which outlined solutions to the Apapa traffic problem.

Instructively, Bello offered the council’s assistance to train LASTMA officials for better service delivery in the port axis, an offer that was well-received by the governor, and who added that LASTMA should have an office in Apapa.

With Governor Sanwo-Olu to receive Bello and his team at the meeting was his deputy, Dr. Femi Hamzat, commissioner of transportation, Dr. Frederic Oladeinde, permanent secretary in the ministry of transport, Mr. Oluseyi Whenu and the Special Assistant – Transportation, Mr. Oluwatoyin Fayinka.

The Lagos state governor assured the Shippers’ Council team of his cooperation, stating that the goals of his government and that of Nigerian Shippers’ Council in terms of restoring sanity to Apapa and making Lagos a smart city is same.