The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, Hassan Bello has said that the negative global corruption rating of the country is not unrelated to the activities in the nation’s ports. This is even as the nation commenced joint boarding of visiting vessels to curb all forms of sharp practices associated with boarding of ships in the past.
Bello disclosed this in Lagos yesterday at the commencement of joint boarding of visiting vessels to curb all forms of sharp practices associated with boarding of ships in the past.
He said that the level of corruption at the port is connected with lack of known processes and procedures in the sector. The NSC boss explained that there have been complaints about the activities of government agencies boarding visiting vessels, further noting that with the joint boarding all forms of sharp practices will be eliminated.
He also stated that there will be zero tolerance to any form of corruption in the ports going forward, stressing that Nigeria has gotten a bad reputation in the past from boarding activities. Bello pointed out that the task team is expected to give monthly report to NSC and the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, adding that the task team will report on the number of vessels that visited the nation’s ports, number of people from the various agencies that boarded visiting ships and how long each of the agencies stayed on board.
According to him, the joint boarding by all the relevant agencies will help efficiency of the process which will lead to integrity of the process. Also speaking at the event, General Managing, Private, Public Partnership, NPA, Eniola Williams who represented the Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman, said that the Authority is working at making the nation’s ports the leading ports in Africa.
– Vanguard