Shippers Council boss faults April 1 registration deadline, says registration a continuum

THE Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello has faulted news filtering around that the stakeholders registration policy embarked upon by the agency will end on the 1st of April, 2019, stating that the exercise is a continuum.

Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune exclusively during the last inspection of the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail project, the Executive Secretary explained that many stakeholders have already keyed in into the exercise.

According to Hassan Bello, “the exercise is a continuum. It won’t end on April 1st as wrongly speculated in some section of the media. Many of the stakeholders have already keyed in, including some of the shipping companies. The registration will provide the shipping companies information about their customers. We won’t just allow anybody to just come into the ports and do business without them being registered

 “The registration is not about the money. We just want to know the people we are dealing with, their addresses and contact details, should in case there is need for it.

“Do you know that the shipping companies don’t charge container deposit fee on their customers? They don’t because they know them. They only charge the people they don’t know, because these people are not registered.”

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A breakdown of the fees released by the NSC indicated that shipping line agencies and terminal operators would pay N50,000 per annum, down from the initial N100,000.

Inland container depots and dry port operators will pay N25,000 instead of N50,000; while off -dock terminal operators, cargo consolidators and shipping agency (non-vessel operating agency) will pay N10,000 down from N20,000.

Freight forwarders, clearing agents, haulage firms, stevedoring companies, cargo surveyors and shippers will pay N5,000 down from N10,000 initially fixed by the Shippers’ Council.