As Stakeholders in the Marítime sector await President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the Nigerian Economic Regulatory Agency (NIPERA) bill, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) is not leaving any stone unturned to ensure that its staff members fit into the new roles.
When eventually signed into law, the bill would allow the Council to legally regulate pricing and other economic indexes in the nation’s maritime sector.
To this end, every department and unit in the Council is assiduously preparing for the transition from its current status to NIPERA. In the last few months, both senior and mid-level management staff members have held retreats on the new responsibilities the council anticipated.
After that, various units and departments followed the same line as they took various steps to organize retreats explaining their new roles to their staff members.
So, last week, the council’s Public Relations department held a retreat in Lagos titled “Team building: Strategic Planning: Sharing Ideas To Stay Ahead of Competition.” During the retreat, the department brainstormed about how to achieve efficiency in its new role.
The Executive Secretary of the Council, Dr Pius Akutah, declared the retreat open and said the Council’s transition to NIPERA would mean bigger responsibilities and mandates.
He, however, expressed optimism that the retreat would prepare them for the higher responsibilities, as some elements would want to ensure that what the council is working so hard to achieve for the country does not come to pass.
“Over the years, the council has been known for its role in regulating activities in the sector, and quite good work has been done by my predecessors. But today, you and I know that we are aiming for something bigger and something more than the usual mandates that we have had as an agency. So, there will be a lot of news out there, negative publicity as well, people trying to ensure that that which we are working so hard to achieve for this country does not come to pass.
“It is your duty actually to be the watchman for the agency for that kind of information, negative information. Some of them are quite outright lies that will go out there against us. I have seen quite a number of them.
You must look into the public space and see the kind of information that is being dished out there to the public against us. Some of it outrightly targeted at reducing our pace and making us ineffective in what we intend to achieve. But, what we are up for is good for the country and good for the sector, and it is in support of Mr. President’s agenda to diversify the economy of this country.
“All that we have targeted to achieve is in support of that. So, we have the backing of our minister who has been standing very tall in support of our activities, who has given us the free will to bring up ideas that will shape this sector. We are working together with other agencies, hands in gloves, to see how we can achieve all of that.”
The Shippers’ Council boss who said reforming the sector and achieving the government mandates cannot be achieved in silos, emphasized collaboration between all agencies in the sector.
“We cannot work alone in our silos and achieve any measure of success unless we work together. That is why we have always emphasized the issue of collaboration. We have emphasized collaboration between the agencies in this sector and even those that are not within the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy but are relevant for us to achieve our mandate. We need to collaborate with them.
“So, I urge you to take time out to look at our activities and try to examine the areas that you think we can do better, the areas that you think we need to maintain the pulse and the areas you think we should need to maintain the speed also.
“Let us use this period as we gather here. By the time you begin to listen to some of the resource persons who have been selected to speak with you here, pay attention to them for the details. I’m expecting that the outcomes of this retreat will shape the way that we carry on with our PRESS activities
“It goes into the social media space also, which is a very wide space, very delicate and sometimes full of thugs and full of bullies who come there to bully people and to spread falsehood. The traditional media stands for truth and investigative journalism. We intend to use them a lot in terms of passing across the information that we need the public to know about our activities,” the NSC boss stated.
However, the assistant director of public relations at NSC, Rebecca Adamu, appreciated the support of the executive secretary and management in making the retreat a reality.
Adamu urged members of the unit to improve on their deliveries, saying: “This retreat is our opportunity to reflect, refresh, and re-strategise to ensure that we remain not just relevant, but impactful in the way we communicate the Council’s vision to the public.”
“We are confident that by the end of this retreat, we will have stronger ideas, clearer goals, and renewed motivation to elevate the Council’s image, foster stakeholder trust, and stay ahead in a highly competitive space,” she stated.
We’ve got the edge. Get real-time reports, breaking scoops, and exclusive angles delivered straight to your phone. Don’t settle for stale news. Join LEADERSHIP NEWS on WhatsApp for 24/7 updates →
Join Our WhatsApp Channel
