Regulating the Gatekeepers While Starving the Fleet: NSC’s Opacity Problem and the Missing Indigenous Ship-Owner's Agenda
By Lod Onyeji The Visit vs. The Void On Thursday in Apapa, NSC Board Chairman Dr. Ibrahim Shehu Shema framed “continuous engagement with service providers” as the lever for port development and the federal one-trillion-dollar economy target. He pressed CMA CGM and APM Terminals on power-project cargo, efficiency, and digitalization, and praised a 30% uptick in export volumes. ES/CEO Dr. Pius Akutah cited modernization and vessel turnaround as evidence of progress. What the communique did not mention: Nigerian ship owners. No metric on indigenous tonnage, no target for Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund disbursement, no benchmark for Nigerian-flag fleet growth. The Council regulates shippers and interfaces with terminal operators, yet its public posture and disclosed KPIs reveal an administrative bias: protect the gatekeepers, not grow the carriers. Opacity as Policy NSC’s opacity shows up in three places: 1. Mandate drift: NSC Act empowers it to protect “...
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