Shippers Council flays multiple taxation in Nigeria

The council said this has made doing business at Nigeria’s seaports and waterways very cumbersome, costly and heartrending.
The council has, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government to ease the bottlenecks hindering trade procedures in the maritime industry.
Speaking at the one-day enlightenment seminar with the theme:
‘Rights and Obligations of Shippers in International Trade Transactions in Nigeria,  Director, Commercial Shipping Services, Mrs. Dabney Shall-Holma, who was represented by Mr. Saizam Mua’zu,  said if the bottlenecks are not eliminated, Nigeria risked being ranked very low on the World Bank Business Index.
The high trade transaction costs, the director said, were inimical to the growth of the nation’s maritime industry.
“It is as a result of this that there are perennial congestions at the ports, long trucks queues at the ports/border posts, high trade transaction costs, corruption, underutilization of port facilities and ultimately loss of competiveness for the country,” she said.
“This is why in 2011 for instance, Nigeria was ranked at number 109 and dropped to 133 out of 183 in 2012,” Shall-Holma said, adding that currently the country ranks 147.
She also appealed that the regulatoryenvironment in the country be made much more favourable to attract many more international cargo investors.