Shippers’ Council to terminate licenses of non-performing ICD concessionaires

”If the concessionaires of Inland Container Depots (ICD) fail to live up to expectations in accordance with the agreement signed recently with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commis­sion (ICRC) on behalf of the Fed­eral Government, we will revoke their licenses, the Nigerian Ship­pers’ Council (NSC)”, has warned.

Hassan Bello, executive sec­retary of the Council, who gave this warning on Monday in a meeting with the various con­cessionaires of ICDs at the NSC’s headquarters in Lagos, promised that government will ensure that all the inland dry ports become ports of origin.

The inland container depots was a concept developed by the Federal Government through the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to bring shipping to the doorstep of shippers, decongest the seaports and reduce cost of transportation among others.

There are six approved lo­cations for ICDs, which were concessioned to private sector operators and they include Isiala- Ngwa in Aba; Erunmu in Ibadan; Heipang in Jos; Zawachiki in Kano; Zamfarawa in Funtua and Jauri in Maiduguri.

The concessionaires, he said, must be committed to developing the ICDs to achieve the purpose for their establishment, which include bringing port services very close to the users. “If we see some unwill­ingness to execute this project, the government will not hesitate to terminate this concession.”

Continuing, he said that gov­ernment has an obligation of creating an enabling environment through consistence policies to encourage private sectors to perform. “The concessionaires too have an obligation. Govern­ment is an enabler and will do everything possible to ensure that these projects come on stream but we also need to see some level of seriousness on the side of the concessionaires.”

While disclosing that there is a new timeline in the new agreement, the NSC boss told the concessionaire of its readiness to support them at any time to achieve their goal.

On why the Council drew a new agreement, Bello said the need for a new agreement with the ICDs concessionaires was due to the fact that the previous agreement was not based on public private partnership term, and it was without any regulatory framework.

The Shippers’ Council boss, who also presented copies of the new agreement to the conces­sionaires, directed the conces­sionaires to study the agreement and come up with inputs on how the development of the ICDs could be accelerated. He described the agreement as more agreeable, modern and in tune with the legal framework of public private partnership.