The Nigerian Shippers’ Council has stated that the current cargo dwell time and vessel turnaround statistics in Nigerian ports are unacceptable, pledging the council’s readiness to reduce them to match regional benchmarks.
This comes as the service announced a five-year strategic plan (2025–2029) to guide the implementation of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy’s goal of improving trade logistics, cargo management, and port infrastructure development.
The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, NSC, Dr Pius Akutah, gave the pledge in Lagos during the opening ceremony of a two-day NSC Management System Retreat, themed ‘Achieving strategic intents through performance lens’.
Akutah stated that the NSC has moved to a new era and can no longer afford to operate as a process-heavy, paper-driven bureaucracy but as an outcome-driven institution focused on measurable results.
He said this reform is designed to align the council with the Federal Government’s strategic priorities under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
“Current cargo dwell time and vessel turnaround statistics remain unacceptable. We must work to ensure that cargo clearing timelines in Nigerian ports are reduced to match regional benchmarks. The days of manual processing must come to an end,” Akutah stated.
To address this, he announced a policy directive for the Regulatory Services and Information and Communication Technology units of the agency to jointly “develop a real-time integrated dashboard in collaboration with terminal operators and the Nigeria Customs Service.”
Punch/Hauwa Abu