The Nigerian Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency Bill 2023, which seeks to repeal the Nigerian Shippers’ Council Act Cap N133 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria LFN, has scaled through the second reading stage at the House of Representatives, the country’s lower legislative chamber.

This is in line with theKey Performance Indicator KPI, for the year 2024 of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, His Excellency, Adegboyega Oyetola as signed in the performance bond by agencies. The Bill in addition to seeking to repeal the Nigerian Shippers’ Council Act, also seeks to enact the Nigerian Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency Act to strengthen the port regulatory functions of the Council.

Chairman, House Committee on Shipping Services, Hon. Abdussamad Dasuki, who presented the Bill at the House of Representatives, Wednesday February 14, 2024, said that the Federal Government made the Nigerian Shippers’ Council the Port Economic Regulator in 2015 and needed to strengthen its functions.

 “If you go through the documents before us, you will see that there is a gazette by the Federal Government in 2015. In that gazette, the Federal Government highlighted what the Shippers’ Council is actually doing today. 

“The Federal Government noted that the objective of the regulation is to create an effective regulatory regime for the Nigerian ports after the concession of the ports. The port does not mean the Nigerian Ports Authority alone. It also means all the stakeholders in the ports, for the control of tariffs, rates, charges and other related economic services.

“The Shippers’ Council’s gazette is being implemented today as a regulation and not as an act. The regulations provided that the NSC shall perform the role of interim port economic regulator with the administrative backing of the Federal Government.

The regulations further provided that from the commencement of this regulation in 2015, every regulated service provider in the Nigerian ports shall register with the Council. And as at today, they are answerable to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council”, Dasuki said.

He reiterated the need to repeal the existing NSC Act in order to empower the Council to be able to discharge its mandate as the Port Economic Regulator.

It would be recalled that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), was established in 1978 to protect the interest of Nigerian shippers. The Council’s mandate was later expanded to include Economic Regulation of the port industry pursuant to the Port Economic Regulator Order 2015.

This necessitated the review of the NSC Act to harmonise all the regulations into the Nigerian Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency Bill.