By Steve Agbota
The House of Representatives has passed the long awaited Nigerian Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency Bill.
The Executive Secretary/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Pius Akutah disclosed this on Friday while declaring the 2024 Operational Retreat organised for middle management officers of the agency open in Lagos.
Akutah explained that the Bill has now gone to the Senate for reading.
“I want to enjoin all of you to take this training as one of the avenues that we try to build capacity for the new roles that the Council has assumed.
“This training is tagged, training for middle management grade level 12 to 14. As middle management officers, I want you to start preparing yourselves for top management roles.
“I want you to know that in any organisation, middle management is the engine room that drives policy implementation. Just last week, the House of Representatives passed our bill, the Nigerian Shipping and Port Economic Regulatory Agency Bill.
“That’s a big step in the right direction. And just this last Tuesday, the Senate was poised to pass the bill so that it begins to prepare for presidential assent. We were there at the National Assembly up until 11pm, but because of the supplementary budget, that line on the other paper of the Senate was not taken,” he added.
According to him, the Senate has done the first reading of the Bill, and what’s left is for them to pass the bill.
“But the National Assembly has gone on recess. We believe that as soon as they are back from recess, that Bill will be passed into law,” he said.