The National Transport Commission [NTC] bill passed by the National Assembly in March, this year is still awaiting President Muhammadu Buhari’s assent for it to become law. While the House of Representatives passed the bill into law sometime last year, Senate did so in March. The bill seeks to create a National Transport Commission “as an effective, impartial and independent regulatory authority in the transport sector.” Among other things, the Commission will promote implementation of the National Transport Policy, provide an economic regulatory framework for the transport sector,provide efficient economic regulation of the transport sectorand protect the rights and interests of serviceoperators and users within Nigeria.
Other functions of NTC as envisaged in the bill are to provide mechanism for monitoring compliance of government agencies and transport operators in the regulated transport industry, and to create an enabling environment for private sector participation in the provision of transport sector services. NTC, when it fully takes off, is expected to address many problems including the disjointed nature of this country’s different transport systems namely road, rail, inland water, shipping and aviation. While much of this country’s transport sector is already in private hands, it suffers from inadequate regulation of operations, fees and charges, not to mention safety standards.
Other functions of NTC contained in the bill include to facilitate effective competition in the transport sector; promote private sector participation in the provision of transport services; monitor performance of the regulated sector and ensure that operators and users have equitable access to the use of transport facilities, services, channels and routes. It is also expected to carry out government’s economic regulatory policies on transport and protect the interests of users of transport services by ensuring that prices are fair and reasonable. NTC will also examine and resolve complaints and disputes between government agencies, concessionaires, licensed operators, users, shippers and consumers.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Land Transport Senator Gbenga Ashafa said after the bill was passed that it is capable of setting the transport sector on the path of positive development and it could successfully create a multi-modal economic and safety oversight regulator for the whole sector. Needless to say, a law that seeks to increase efficiency and restore order to the chaotic transport sector in this country is highly welcome because transport is the backbone of the economy. Without efficient transportation, the economy will continue to suffer huge losses and would not grow as fast as it could despite all efforts in other areas such as agriculture, manufacturing and services.
If and when the president finally assents to the bill and it becomes law, another issue is the take off of the National Transport Commission.As many experts and stakeholders have pointed out, the quickest and best way to ensure smooth take off is to transform the Nigeria Shippers Council, NSC into the NTC. This is because NSC already carries out many of NTC’s envisaged functions—in the maritime sector. Established in 1978, NSC has already got the staffing, facilities and experience to take over these functions. In fact, in 2014 the Federal Government appointed NSC to carry out these envisaged functions of NTC as a stop gap measure. Government noted, for example that the objectives of port reforms introduced during the Obasanjo regime have not fully succeeded in improving service delivery and reducing port charges because of the absence of an economic regulator.
Another reason why it is imperative to transform NSC into NTC are to avoid a duplication of functions because there are many similarities in the two agencies’ functions. These include in areas such as regulation of tariffs, registration of service providers, monitoring and reporting, complaints and investigation and power to enter premises for the purpose of monitoring and enforcement.Considering all the benefits, we therefore urge a speedy signing into law of the NTC bill and its speedy take off by transforming NSC to form the nucleus of the transport commission.
