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Importers, agents urged to adopt port conflict resolution portal

By Sulaimon Salau
30 October 2019   |   4:11 am
The Federal Government has enjoined importers, agents, and other stakeholders to exploit the Port Service Support Portal (PSSP), even as about 400 cases of conflicts and infractions at seaports were resolved in the last three years.

Seaport

The Federal Government has enjoined importers, agents, and other stakeholders to exploit the Port Service Support Portal (PSSP), even as about 400 cases of conflicts and infractions at seaports were resolved in the last three years.

The Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), described the PSSP as an online-real-time-complaints-resolution platform for all players at the port, and a one-stop-shop for all complaints in the industry.

Deputy Director, Complaints Unit of NSC, Moses Fadipe, who disclosed this at a roundtable organised by the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN), said many cases have been resolved since the PSSP was opened by Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on June 23, 2016.

He said data generated from the portal could be used by government for policy formulation, and feedback mechanism for activities and operations at the ports.

“It also goes further to tell us the grievance resolution mechanism in the industry; who does what, and the highest infraction agency in the industry. It will help to know the highest occurrences within the ports industry, which will be aggregated and report generated for the industry. It is an app that you can just register online by clicking on the web page: https//:www.pssp.ng.”

To popularise the existence of the portal, he said the NSC in 2018, had took awareness campaigns to Onne, Apapa, and Warri ports, adding that stakeholders who are signatory to the establishment of the portal should get involved in the advocacy campaign for better service delivery at the ports.

Chairman, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Babatunde Ruwase, expressed surprise at the existence of the grievance resolution software, urging government to promote it and create more platforms that would enhance efficiency at the seaports.

His words: “For instance, the LCCI is the oldest Chamber in the country with the largest membership, and every day I have problems on obstruction of movement of goods from the port escalated to my desk. Currently, we have one now that we are taking up with the Nigeria Customs Service, and Nigerian Shippers Council, because I never knew that something like this exists.

“I didn’t know about this sort of thing, as it would have been a tool that we can use to tackle teething problems at the port. It may be a tool by NSC that can work, but certainly we all agree that this system is not working.”
He noted that if the portal was working, a lot of problems and complaints that arise at the Apapa port would have been unresolved.

He enjoined NSC, NPA, NIMASA, NCS, and other federal government agencies to be more proactive, as people would be very happy to know that you can lodge complaints through a portal and resolution provided within hours.

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