The newly-appointed Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani Wednesday in Abuja commended the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) for its promotion of the establishment of Vehicle Transit Areas (VTA) amongst other initiatives aimed at trade facilitation to boost the nation’s economy and delivering high quality service to shippers.
Head, Public Relations, NSC, Rakiya Zubairu, in a statement saidDr. Ajani who spoke in response to the briefing she received from the ES/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Hassan Bello, who led a team of top management staff to the Federal Ministry of Transportation, expressed delight about the achievements of the Council and encouraged the management to press ahead with the impressive work they are doing, assuring them of the ministry’s support.
According to the statement, the ES spoke about the various ongoing projects and initiatives that the Council has embarked upon. He told the permanent secretary about the push for 24-hour port operations, efforts to address congestion at the ports and multimodal transportation of goods to and from the ports and digitalization. He also spoke about challenges, particularly resistance to regulation.
On the VTAs, Dr. Ajani was particularly excited about the prospect of the actualization of VTAs in various parts of Nigeria leading to a significant reduction of road traffic accidents. She said the VTAs would create sanity on the roads while generating employment, the statement said.
The National Single Window according to her is very important for the development of the maritime sector in Nigeria as it will ease the business of shipping.
She said the ministry expects synergy and collaboration amongst all the agencies under its supervision in order to deliver on the mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari.
