The Nigerian Shippers' Council (NSC) has agreed to work with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to facilitate trade in Africa.
Segun Olugboyegun, the chairman of the ICC Global Customs and Trade Commission, made the request on Wednesday in Lagos while leading a group on a polite visit to the NSC's offices.
According to Olugboyegun, the purpose of the visit was to ensure solid cooperation with the Shippers' Council in light of its advocacy for trade facilitation in the maritime industry.
During a presentation on the "ICC Global Customs and Trade Facilitation Commission," the Executive Secretary of ICC Nigeria, Mrs Olubunmi Osuntuyi, stated that the ICC was a leading advocate for the adoption of digitalized customs processes.
Osuntuyi stressed the need for industry engagement on emerging policy issues within the World Customs Organisation (WCO) in areas such as the circular economy and data transfers in regional trade.
According to her, ICC requires NSC’s involvement in their capacity-building programmes.
She added that the NSC had participated in some of their programmes in the past.
Also speaking, a member of the delegation, Mr Vincent Olu, commended the NSC for the pivotal role it had played in trade facilitation in the maritime sector.
He called on the council to extend this synergy to other institutions such as banks for trade promotion.
Responding, the Executive Secretary of NSC, Mr Emmanuel Jime, while appreciating the ICC’s visit said the NSC promotes seamless trade and carries out activities beneficial to shippers in the country.
Jimeh said that the council recognised the importance of International Commercial Terms (INCOTERMS) such as Cost Insurance and Freight, which Nigeria had adopted for export products.