The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has expressed willingness to support the International Trade Center (ITC) to resolve cross-border traders’ challenges and to facilitate trade.
ITC is the ECOWAS Agricultural Trade Program co-implementer aimed at improving intra-regional agricultural trade at border crossing points.
The Associate Program Officer, ITC, Richard Eke- Metoho, at a courtesy visit to the NSC said the purpose of the visit was part of the team’s ongoing study to identify areas for improvement in trade facilitation, particularly at border crossing points.
Highlighting the importance of collecting data from the Council which manages information centre at Seme-Krake border, he maintained that some of the identified challenges faced by traders and truck drivers using the border, a key trade route is the number of checkpoints and lack of scanners.
He said information collected by the team would not only identify existing trade facilitation measures that were working effectively but also led to the development of new trade facilitation measures that address the challenges faced by traders.
He said, “We are here to collect experience from the Nigerian Shippers Council.
“From our interactions with the Shippers Council, we keep finding similar problem faced by traders most especially on the number of checkpoints and scanners that are really needed especially for transporters and truck drivers.
“It is still an ongoing study. The more information we collect right now, the more it will help us to make more informed decision process. At the end of the study, we will be able to develop a report that will pinpoint all the main obstacles that traders are facing.”
In his remarks, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Pius Ukeyima Akutah emphasized that trade facilitation is a major initiative of the Council and pledged to provide the necessary support to ensure the success of the study.
He noted that the study will strengthen the Council’s ability to formalize informal trade at border areas, gather statistics, and plan for trade volumes.
He expressed optimism that the study will help develop skills and improve operations at the Border Information Centre managed by the Council.
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