Airfreight Stakeholders Forum is set to organize an export promotion enlightenment programme, to educate operators in the industry on new innovations and increase cargo movement in the export sub-sector of the economy.
The programme which is being organized by the Airfreight Stakeholders Forum, will be coordinated by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC).
The forum consists of Association of Nigeria Courier Operators (Anco), Association of Nigeria Customs Licensed Agents (Ancla), Air line operators, National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, and National Agency for Food, Drug, Administration and Control.
The NSC, was established in 1978 by decree 13 NSC Act cap. N133LFN2004.
It is vested with the responsibility of protecting the interest of Nigerian Shippers i.e. importers and exporters.
Investigations revealed that the period before the formation of Nigerian Shippers' Council in 1978 was characterized by deterioration in the quality of shipping services and unmitigated increases in ocean freight rates by foreign ship owners who operated scheduled liner services to Nigerian ports.
Acting under a powerful cartel of conference arrangement, Shipping Companies unilaterally imposed freight rate increases, which averaged between 25 and 30 percent per annum notably along the United Kingdom West African Line (UKWAL), Continental West African Lines Conference (COWAC), American West Africa Freight Conference (AWAFC) etc. shipping ranges.
These increases without exception were in addition to stifling port surcharges that the conference equally imposed on the nation's economy. For example, at the peak of the infamous cement armada in mid 1974, daily demurrage of 4,000 US dollars were charged per vessel on over 600 vessels waiting for months to berth, a development that created unpleasant consequences for the economy.
As the huge foreign currency outflows arising from the carriage of our sea-borne trade in foreign lines continued to impoverish the Nigerian economy and other developing countries, with attendant adverse consequences on balance of payment in favour of developed countries, a debate aimed at addressing the problem of trade imbalance was voiced at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
From this debate, there emerged a new World Maritime Order in 1965 encapsulated in the UN Liner Code for Liner Conferences document which strongly recommended the formation of National Shippers' Councils in developing countries also referred to as Group of 77. UNCTAD confirmed this new order by endorsing the formation of Shippers' Councils in its 1968 meeting in New Delhi, India. Thereafter Shippers' Councils sprang up in various parts of the world including the developed countries. The first Shippers' Council in Africa was set up in 1968 in Cote D' Voire .
Therefore, to all intents and purposes, the formation of national shippers' organizations in the developing countries was to act as a countervailing force against the excesses of foreign ship owners and other service providers.
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