The Executive Secretary/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council NSC, Dr Pius Akutah MON, has expressed appreciation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his recent assented to the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency NPERA, Bill, 2026, which ends over three years of stakeholders’ apprehension and anxiety over the fate of the law, which is expected to change the port dynamics, especially in terms of commercial regulation- tariffs, charges and levies.

This development, according experts, also paves the way for the coming on stream of a full economic regulator for the country’s port sector with full regulatory powers to regulate and sanction erring operators, which also ends years of impunity of some operators and stakeholders.

According to a post by the Executive Secretary on his verified Face Book page @Pius Akutah Gbongbon, he expressed his profound gratitude to the President for signing the NEPRA Bill 2026 into law.

The post read: “Nigerian Port Economic Regulatory Agency Act, 2026. Thank you Mr. President for making it a reality.”

Recall that both the Senate and the House of Representatives; the lower legislative chamber had late last year concurrently passed the bill, which was promptly transmitted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for assent early this year.

But the President had however returned the bill to the National Assembly, when it was discovered during review processes that certain provisions conflicted with the Nigerian Tax Administration Act NTAA, 2025.

This led to the setting up of a technical committee comprising members drawn from both chambers of the National Assembly and legal drafting experts from the Directorate of Legal Services reconvened to begin fresh legislative work on the bill.

The technical committee was mandated to resolve the issues raised after the detailed scrutiny of the bill and recommend necessary corrections for legislative reconsideration.

Both chambers of the National Assembly had eventually passed the harmonised bill some few months ago and later transmitted to the President for his final assent.

While the details of the implementation framework are not yet clear at the time of filing this report, stakeholders have expressed excitement over the eventual passage of the new Act, insisting it would herald a new phase of order and sanity in terms of port economic regulation.

A freight forwarder, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, noted that though it is still too early to talk about its implementation strategies, the passage of the Act indicates that there will soon be a new sheriff in town, who will not tolerate the imposition of exorbitant tariffs and charges, thus heralding a new era of tariff-service regime as against the erstwhile arbitrariness.

It would be further recalled that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, was established in 1978 through the NSC Act to protect the interest of Nigerian shippers. The Council’s mandate was later expanded to include Economic Regulation of the port industry, which is pursuant to the Port Economic Regulator Order 2015. This Order followed some inadequacies that arose after the concession of the ports in 2006, which brought in private terminal operators and thus the need to regulate tariffs and charges.

This necessitated the review of the NSC Act to harmonise all the regulations into the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency NPERA, Bill.

Prior to this time, the Council operated under a gazette issued by the Federal Government issued in 2015. In that gazette, the Federal Government highlighted the roles and functions of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council as Port Economic Regulator.

The Federal Government’s objective of the regulation was to create an effective regulatory regime for the Nigerian ports after the concession of the ports, which encompasses all the stakeholders in the ports, for the control of tariffs, rates, charges and other related economic services.

Regrettably, the Shippers’ Council’s gazette was implemented as a regulation, not as an act, with so many limitations. 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 answerable to and should be answerable to it.

This gave rise to the need to repeal the NSC Act in-order to empower the Council to be able to discharge its mandate as the Port Economic Regulator, a dream that has just been made a reality.