By Aisha Cole
Lagos, Aug. 23, 2024 (NAN) The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has saved the Federal Government N31.1 billion through the Electronic Regulatory Port Portal (ERPP) between January and June 2024.
The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of NSC, Mr Pius Akutah, made this known during a courtesy visit by the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Malam Ali M. Ali to the Council’s Headquarters in Lagos on Friday.
According to Akutah, the council has saved the economy a lot of money that would otherwise have been repatriated.
ERPP is an activity the NSC carries out for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to confirm the reasonableness of Charter Party fees
The executive secretary said that the council conducted a quality assurance test between January and June 2024 to confirm the demurrage applications, which he said had yielded significant results.
Akutah said the test revealed that out of total requests of N50.8 billion, N19.6 billion requests were validated as reasonable for payment.
“Consequently, the council achieved a substantial saving of N31.1 billion over the six-month period.
“Notably, this represents a remarkable 400 per cent improvement in savings compared to the preceding year from January to December 2023 where the total savings amounted to N6.7 billion.
“This substantial enhancement is attributed to the innovative automation solutions developed by the Council to streamline the confirmation process,” Akutah said.
He said that the ERPP had demonstrated a significant impact on operational efficiency and cost optimisation.
The NSC boss said that ERPP applications were expected to save approximately 80 per cent of outflows from the Nigerian economy as well as block leakages, over-invoicing and minimise capital flight.
He said that by leveraging technology, the NSC aimed at enhancing transparency, efficiency and accountability in the port sector, ultimately contributing to the growth and development of the Nigerian economy.
Akutah said that NSC developed the innovative digital platform, the Electronic Regulatory Process Portal, to enhance its regulatory functions and promote port efficiency.
He said that the platform served as a channel of accessibility to all council’s regulatory functions in the pursuit of port efficiency.
“The ERPP provides platform for submission, centralisation and e-monitoring of operational KPI of all regulated service providers in Nigeria for the purpose of planning and research.
“Other provisions by the platform are the annual tariff filing by the stakeholders in the port sector; Voyage Management System; Airfreight Cargo Throughput Data Submission by ground handlers.
“Submission of requests for review of tariffs, rates and charges by the Regulated Service Providers. ERPP platform also provides gateway authentication to other council’s applications like CRD portal for confirmation of reasonableness of demurrage, freight rates and charter party payments,” Akutah said.
“NSC undertakes the implementation of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) assignment in line with the revised Foreign Exchange (FOREX) manual of 2018, Memorandum 13, Article 3.3 which stipulates “confirmation of reasonableness” by NSC as a pre-condition for granting approval for requests for foreign exchange for the payment of freight rates, charter party fees and demurrage remittance,” the executive secretary said.
He said the council had developed a web-based multi-functional application to eliminate the work of calculating and confirming the summary sheet of demurrage charges, freight rate and charter party fees submitted by shipping companies, shippers and vessel charterers via their banks.
Akutah said that all requests were submitted, processed and approved on-line.
He commended NAN for providing news contents within and outside the country
Akutah pledged to collaborate with NAN for more awareness and stressed the need for stakeholders to patronise the Inland Dry Ports to reduce costs of doing business in Nigeria.
“We completely align with you when you say that no one knows Nigeria like NAN
“We know the quality of news and programmes that NAN has.
“We believe that a partnership with NAN will further promote our activities,’’ he said.
Speaking earlier, Ali said that NAN was delighted with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on Friday between the Council and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN).
Ali said that the operations of the Inland Dry Ports (IDPs) in Kano and Kaduna were testimonies of what Akutah had achieved in less than one year of his coming into office.
“We in NAN want to partner with NSC because No One Knows Nigeria Like NAN.
“We have offices all over the 36 states, the districts, foreign countries and there are plans to open some foreign offices soon.
“In terms of visibility, we will ensure that Shippers’ Council is unbeatable. You talk to NAN, You talk to all,” the NAN managing director said.
He said that the agency’s Unique Selling Point was to report fairly, objectively and respect the objectivity of the profession.
Ali thanked the NSC management for profusely accepting to receive the NAN management.
The NAN boss stressed the need for the NSC to patronise the NAN Bulk SMS, Photo archives and PR wire service. (NAN)
