Transport
Nigeria may reintroduce Cargo Tracking Note to stem rising insecurity.

Amaechi has therefore directed the Nigerian Shippers’ Council(NSC), the implementing agency, to commence preparation to undertake the responsibility of administering CTN as it takes off.
The Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) or the ECTN (Electronic Cargo Tracking Note), is a system for collecting documents and processing information, when exporting by sea in order to obtain prior information, to participate in security measures, statistics, and generally in order to participate in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Customs Organization (WCO) recommendations on trade facilitation and security.
Shippers’ Council has been encouraged to introduce the system in a way that shouldn’t add to the cost of doing business at the ports, but enable the nation to track imports from ports of origin to drastically reduce import of arms.
Recall that in 2017 alone, 2671 pump-action rifles were intercepted at Nigerian seaports. The guns were legally registered for export in Turkey as pump-action rifles for hunting but the manifests were changed in Morocco to become steel doors to enable the container gain entry into Nigeria.
With CTN, however, Nigeria would have been able to see the original manifests from Turkey and intercept the guns before the consignments arrived in Nigeria.
Twenty-four African countries presently use CTN and these nations include; Angola, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana and Guinea.
Others include; Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Togo.
Although CTN has had two stints at Nigerian ports previously, under the administration of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and later NSC, Nigeria would have to prequalify the possible companies via a bidding process.
Speaking on the reintroduction of CTN, a maritime lawyer, technocrat and Director of Education and Research in the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Dr. Alban Igwe said CTN remains the best answer to issues of anomalies and security challenges in the country.
Igwe explained that this was because CTN will improve the security and safety of the supply chain as it will profile cargoes being imported into the country.
“The objective is to improve the security and safety of the supply chain and help us see the profile of products we are bringing in. It will help us know the origin and destination of cargoes and help us know our enemies,” he said.
Besides insecurity, CTN has also been described as the best platform in checking revenue leakages in imports as well as obtaining information about the content of the cargoes.
CTN will address situations in which importers under-invoice their goods from the suppliers at the point of purchases to pay less duties. The platform will check the trend to ensure manifests are not tampered with by ships for the purpose of cheating on GT.
The Executive Secretary, NSC, Barrister Hassan Bello, whose Council is to handle CTN describes it as “another instrument that will add tremendously in shipping development”.
According to Bello, “It will boost the revenue of the government in customs revenue collection in the sense that it will abate under – declaration and concealment. It will boost the revenue of NPA because there will be no more alteration of the manifests. It will boost the revenue of NIMASA because under – declaration on the weight of ships will not be there any longer.
CTN is also a veritable source of data and some economic experts describe this as the best quality of the electronic based platform.
“You will know everything that is coming into your country. We have had many African countries having this because it is the initiation of the Union of African Shippers Council (UASC),” the NSC boss said about CTN last year

Headlines
Sambo grieves over Lagos train accident, commiserates with families of victims(Video)




The injured victims have been administered first aid treatment by the agency’s medical team (paramedics) and LASAMBUS officials, well stabilized and being transported to the trauma center at LASUTH Ikeja for further treatment.
The agency’s LRT at Cappa alongside LRT at C3, LRU paramedics at C3, Onipanu, Cappa, LASAMBUS officials, Nigeria Police Force, LASTMA, LNSC and Nigerian Army are responders present at the scene of the incident.
Headlines
Sambo allays fears of job loss by railway workers over impending privatisation

The eyewitness reporter
The Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo has assured the staff of the Nigerian Railways Corporation (NRC), that there would be no job loss following the privatization process of the corporation.
“One of the things I will like to see as the Minister of Transportation, through MOFI is the unbundling of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC). There is a Committee set up to unbundle NRC and I will urge you to work with the existing Committee”, he said.
The Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) was incorporated under the provisions of Sections 2 and 3 of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) Act of 1959 as an asset holding company under the Federal Ministry of Finance.

”This means the reformed NPA is generating more revenues to support its operations and also support its workforce and its pensioners”.
The Minister who assuaged the fear of job loss as a result of the unbundling said, ” I don’t want the NRC staff to see the unbundling of the NRC as a threat to their jobs.
” If we have a better performing NRC, then we are going to have better salaries for its workers, better working conditions for its workers, more revenue for the FG and therefore the ability to even build more rail networks’.
Sambo pointed out that the issue of encroachment on railway property will soon be a thing of the past as “MOFI was berthed for a specific reason and that reason is for the Federal Government to take control of its assets and create optimum value for these assets”.
In his contribution, the Minister of State for Transportation, Prince Ademola Adegoroye, extolled the capabilities of the Managing Director, MOFI, Dr. Armstrong, saying he has full confidence that the MOFI team will deliver on the job.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, noted that the MOFI team, made up of young and intelligent people, has satisfied the yearning of Nigerians to have young people in positions of responsibility.
She assured the MOFI team of the cooperation of the Ministry in their assignment.
Speaking earlier, the Chief Executive Officer, MOFI, Dr. Armstrong Katang, stated that the visit was to discuss how to create a more effective and efficient partnership between MOFI and the Ministry of Transportation.
Katang said the areas that have been identified for collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation included enumerating and valuing the Nigerian Railway Corporation to ensure that its value is captured in line with the current realities.
According to him, other areas included enumerating and capturing other critical assets within the Ministry, especially its infrastructure assets and establishing a task force with representation from the Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Finance, with clear terms of reverence to help with the identified assignments.
Headlines
Edo government confirms abduction of 31 train passengers at Tom Ikimi train station

However, the Edo State Police spokesman, Mr. Chidi Nwanbuzor, who broke the news of the incident hours after the assault, is however yet to give an update on the latest development.
Nehikhare said in Benin on Sunday that the Deputy Governor of the state, Comrade Phillips Shaibu visited the Igueben Train Station for an on-the-spot assessment of rescue efforts just as he announced that one of the suspected kidnappers has been arrested.
The Edo State Government spokesman said that out of the 32 kidnap victims, one managed to escape from the den of the kidnappers, deep in the forest.
The commissioner disclosed that a combined team of military, police, vigilante, and local hunters are hot on the heels of the suspected kidnappers with a view to rescuing the victims.
Nehikhare said: “At the moment, security personnel made up of the military and the police as well as men of the vigilante network and hunters are intensifying search and rescue operations in reasonable radius to rescue the kidnap victims.
“One victim out of the 32 people kidnapped escaped from the hands of the abductors. We are confident that the other victims will be rescued in the coming hours.”
While reiterating the government’s determination to ensure the prompt release of the hostages, he appealed for calm and urged citizens to assist security personnel with information on suspicious movements in and around their neighborhoods, particularly in the area where the rescue operation is taking place.
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