By Andrew Oota
The emergence of Barr. Pius Ukeyima Akuta as the new Executive Secretary of Nigeria Shippers Council offers the agency as well as the ministry of Marine and Blue economy the opportunity for aligning the programmes and gains made by previous administrations with the view to strengthening, refocusing and redirecting the institution in line with the Renewed Hope agenda of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration and expectations of Nigerians .
This is no-doubt informed by the expanded and wide scope of responsibilities associated and assigned his office based on the statutory role of the agency as captured in the Act establishing it, which is to offer efficient transport service delivery as a critical determinant in the conduct of international trade to impact on the national economy.
The Nigerian Shippers Council was established to ensure availability ,quality ,cost and efficiency of transport services and to maximally encourage trading, international competitive- market and cost of goods imported into Nigeria as an agent for economic development through well thought out interventions in cost moderation and cargo transport issues that will result in positive impact on inflationary trends in the country.
Barrister Pius Ukeyima Akuta is the Executive Secretary and Chief Executives Officer(CEO) of this all important agency of the ministry of Marine and Blue Economy ; the Nigeria Shippers Council and in that capacity he is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the NSC .
Ukeyima is the man vested with the power to formulate and implement policies and programmes of the NSC as approved by the Governing Council of the agency and in line with the agenda of the Central Government . Hence, he has his job clearly cut out for him.
He sounded prepared on assumption of office in November ,2023 when he assured his management and staff that each of them is qualified and important in the pursuit of the expanded mandate and scope of the agency,which is to play key roles in the diversification of Nigeria’s economy from the over dependent on oil to other sectors of the economy. Hence ,the birth of Marine and Blue Economy ministry.
Suffice to say, since assumption of office it has been two and a half months of action,innovation,pragmatism,eventfulness and the uniqueness of hard-work.
While the two and half months of Akutas four-year tenure might not be fair enough to begin an assessment of his stewardship, the saying that “a good weekend begins on Wednesday”, capture Akutas early steps as an insight into how his full tenure would look like.
His meeting with the staff and assurances that the agency will value there services as drivers of the entire NSC programmes were no-doubt the kind of connectivity required for excellence and this underscores the sense of dynamism of Barrister Pius Ukeyima Akuta as exemplified in all his previous assignments .
Having put forward the right foot, the Executive Secretary has left no-one in doubt that the council remains resolutely determined to be the foremost economic regulator agency in Nigeria and has emphasized on many occasions including his screening and confirmation session on the floor of the Nigerian Senate , that the council has an important role of transport logistics in international trade ,adding that ,under his leadership of the Port economic regulator, he will ensure that the quality,quantity and cost of services in the entire transportation and logistic chain is moderated and standardized in line with global best practice.
This is clearly loudable ; but to get this done and seen to have been done, the NSC Executive Secretary launched the website that will avail the world with the necessary and relevant industry-based information such that will engender competition in business . That was absolutely breathtaking and unambiguous sign of a new dawn at the council .
This underscores the importance of accountability and clarity on the minds of everyone operating within the scope of the regulator agency ranging from complaints ,information on trade policies ,Port charges , tariffs, shipping charges ,rates ,freights etc.
This website encapsulates every detail information on Transport support Infrastructure which is one of the programmes being promoted by the NSC , the Inland Dry Ports, Vehicle Transit Areas,Boarder Information Centers as well as the Sea link project.
Those are the early steps that have given a peep into the colour of the Akuta’s leadership of a four-year tenure and moving forward he announced that the Blue Economy will play a key role to Nigeria actualizing $1trn economy . This further sends the alert that all sleeves must be rolled and all thinking caps must return to every head.
It is true that the Federal Government has named the Blue Economy ministry as one of the pivotal ministries to make this dream of a $1trn economy come true by the year 2026. It is equally more realistic that revenue generating agencies as the Nigerian Shippers Council must get to work and begin to think out of the box.
To get things done and in record time ,the Executive Secretary hinted that Federal Government had already concluded plans to dish out policy documents that would boast port efficiency.
Analysts have argued that rehabilitation and modernization of the Lagos ports should be one of the numerous interactions of the council ,they have equally argued that the ports will perform maximally and contribute to achieving the President’s mandate .
Since assumption of office , Akuta have had series of engagements with the industry stakeholders on multi-level basis unveiling the new direction of the council and the administration in general ,extracting feedbacks from the key players on their challenges and cross-fertilization of ideas on how best to install discipline, accountability and strict adherence to global best practices .
The salutary outcomes of those engagement moves are evident in the tinkering of mental structure of the council, the injection of life into the ports , rebuilding of trade-confidence, staff training programmes, elevated investor-confidence and removal of unecessary incumbrance hitherto witnessed and encountered by prospective investors and traders in the marine and blue economy sector.
The robust and sustained engagements and determination shown by the new Shippers Council boss as a surefoot that the weekend might standout.
Oota is an Abuja based journalist
