The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Nigeria on Thursday inducted the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, Dr Magdalene Ajani, as a Chartered Fellow of the institute.
The Director-General, the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Bashir Jamoh, the foremost maritime lawyer and Chairman Shippers Forum, Mrs Magreth Orakwusi and 29 others were also inducted.
The personalities were inducted at the 2021 CILT Fellows and Corporate Members Forum held in Lagos with the theme: “Optimising Opportunities in African Continental Free Trade Agreement through Logistics and Transport Services.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 12 persons were inducted chartered fellows, eight persons chartered members and 12 as corporate members.
Responding after the induction, Ajani, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, said that the way to get excellence in whatever one does was to professionalise its practice.
According to her, professionalisation of the practice requires training and retraining and interacting with people who have the experience on the field.
“The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport is a professional body that is very relevant in the logistics and transport sector.
“And of course, there are others, if we all work together with this group of people and position the industry to be highly professional, then, we expect an efficient service delivery and improvement in the sector.
“It takes all of us, land, water, air and rail to come together to make a functional intermodal seamless transport sector in Nigeria,” Ajani said.
She pointed out that it would be a lot of hard work adding that the Federal Ministry of Transportation was charged with the coordination of these sub-sectors.
In her presentation, Ms Funmi Folorunsho, Co-champion on Transportation, African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), said that CILT had intellectual capacity in logistics and transport but unfortunately was missing in action.
Folorunsho urged them to optimise their strength in the logistics and transport sector for their impact to be felt.
She called on them to prioritise their already identified opportunities, strategise so that their implementation guidelines would align with national strategy.
Earlier in her address, Mrs Mfon Ekong Usoro, National President CILT, Nigeria noted that today’s discourse on AfCFTA was one of the strategies aimed at preparing operators in the logistics and transport space for full participation in AfCFTA.
According to her, Nigeria should not only be viewed as the largest man to be exploited by its trade partners but should evolve to be the logistics hub for the continent.
“We aim to work with all partners in the industry to drive up the logistics efficiency index for the country.
“Consequently, starting from 2020, CILT Nigeria will publish a Logistics and Transport Advisory and Forecast on a quarterly basis,” she said.
Usoro said that CILT with its array of experts including professors and entrepreneurs in every field of logistics and transport would work with government and other stakeholders to put into effect their recommendations.
“CILT joins the throngs of Nigerians to urge government to issue the Transport Policy document this December,” she said.
Usoro said that personalities inducted were persons known to occupy very high positions of responsibilities in the logistics and transport industry and had achieved prominence in the industry.
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“Our expectation is that they will continue to further the interest of the logistics and transport industry and strive to continuously upgrade and improve efficiency and profitability in the sector,” she said.
CILT is the leading international professional body for all sectors of the transport and logistics Ipindustry founded in the United Kingdom in 1919.
It was granted a Royal Charter in 1926, the CILT was established to promote knowledge of the science and art of logistics and transport and to provide a source of authoritative views for communication to goverment and industry.
CILT Nigeria was founded in 1958 as an international branch of CILT International, focused on education and training, certification, setting standards of practice, licensing of professionals in logistics, transport and supply chain management.
(NAN)
