The National Transport Commission (NTC) Bill, which was worked on by the National Assembly, was sent back by the President Muhammadu Buhari on three grounds including the removal of safety issues because the bill is purely economic regulations.
Secondly, the President also said that the royalty to be paid to the commission as source of funds which was pegged at 10 percent should be reduced to five percent.
Thirdly, Buhari also asked the National Assembly to look at the freight stabilisation fee, which was put at three percent to be reduced to one percent just like it is in the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) Act.
Speaking to BusinessDay in an interview, Hassan Bello, executive secretary of the NSC, said that all the grey areas in the bill have been weeded off, and the bill would soon be transmuted to Mr President again for signing.
“Actually, the comments made by Rotimi Amaechi, Minster of transportation, and Mr President have been noted in the bill and what we have now is a clean bill. And we have to commend the National Assembly’s interest in the NTC,” Bello said.
According to him, NTC is an industry bill and not Shippers Council Bill. “It is not that Nigerian Shippers Council is going to transmute into NTC. No, Shippers Council will be the nucleus where other stakeholders like the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Aviation, and Railway will come to constitute the National Transport Commission.
“We hope that Mr President will assent to the bill after he is satisfied with all the corrections that have been made,” Bello prayed.
