*Jamoh, Ajani, Orakwusi, Ezenwa, Dauda, Others Made The List
*Seeks Making Policy Document on Transport Public December
The National President, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), Nigeria, Mrs. Mfon Ekong Usoro has harped on the statutory roles and responsibilities of the institute in the cargo supply chain.
She opined that like the international body, CILT Nigeria is focused on education and training, certification, setting standards of practice, licensing of professionals in logistics, transport and supply chain management.
Usoro who was at various times the pioneer Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) as well as the Secretary General, Abuja MoU, stated this in her welcome address at the occasion of the 2021 CILT Fellows and Corporate Members Forum in Lagos.
She explained that the immediate goal of the current council of CILT Nigeria is to transform logistics and transport in Nigeria to align with global and continental trends with a focus on technology, growing domestic capacity and strengthening the regulatory deficit that is a sine quo non for the growth and competitiveness of the industry.
According to Usoro who is one of those that played key roles in the passage of several critical maritime bills into law, including the NIMASA Act 2007, CRFFN 2007, the institute is intensifying efforts to deepen and broaden relationship with government and key private sector operates for all institutions who partner with the institute for trainings.
She revealed that that the institute has concluded negotiation of Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with another top-notch university which will be signed soon just as he pointed out that optimizing the opportunities in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is one of the strategies CILT Nigeria is using to prepare operators in the logistics and transport space for full participation in AfCFTA.
Her words: “The aim of the institute is to work with all partners in the industry to drive up the logistics efficiency index for the country. Today’s discourse on Optimizing the Opportunities in AfCFTA is one of the strategies of CILT Nigeria to prepare operators in the logistics and transport space for full participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area. Nigeria should not only be viewed as the largest market to be exploited by our 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, CILT Nigeria will publish a Logistics and Transport Advisory and Forecast on a quarterly basis. Not being a government organization, the CILT Quarterly Advisory will offer independent, objective and constructive assessment of the state of play of the logistics and transport industry together with practical and implementable solutions. We will not stop there, CILT with its array of experts including professors and entrepreneurs in every field of logistics and transport will work with government and other stakeholders to put into effect our recommendations”.
She used the occasion to hail the strides made by some of the personalities that were inducted as fellows of the institute. These include the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Transportation, Dr. (Mrs.) Magdalene Ajani; Director General, NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh; maritime lawyer and Chairman Shippers Forum; Mrs. Margret Orakwusi; former Acting Managing Director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Chief (Mrs.) Chinwe F. O. Ezenwa; top military officer, Major General Dauda Mama Adamu, among others.
In the same vein, no fewer than 8 persons were inducted as chartered members of the institute (CMILT) while 12 others were inducted as s members (MILT).
While commending Ajani for her physical presence at the occasion in spite of her numerous schedules, she request that the CILT be formally involved in the developmental programmes of the Federal Ministry of Transportation.
According to her, we are fully equipped and well skilled to be of value to your Ministry and the country. We extend similar offers to the Federal Government ministries and agencies responsible for aviation, road and pipeline modes of transport.
CILT Nigeria remains the leading professional body in the logistics, transport and supply chain management sector that educates, trains, develops processes and systems for the good of the society. The disruptions to supply chain occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how critical logistics is to commerce and indeed every aspect of our lives including healthcare. CILT Nigeria’s training emphasizes the need for professionals in the sector to continuously improve, prepare and anticipate these disruptions to enable us adapt and cushion the impact of such disruptions.
She stated that the inductees are persons known to all to occupy very high positions of responsibilities in the logistics and transport industry and have achieved prominence in the industry.
“Our expectation is that they will continue to further the interest of the logistics and transport industry and partner with CILT Nigeria as we strive to continuously upgrade and improve efficiency and profitability in the sector”, she added.
Responding after their formal induction as fellows of the institute, Ajani said the way to get excellence in the transport sector is through professionalization and training even as she pointed out that CILT is one of the professional bodies that is very relevant in the logistics and transport sector to provide professionalization.
She argued that if all the four modes of transport can work together effectively, it will bring efficient service delivery in the transport sector of the economy.
Her words: “The way to get about excellence in anything that we do is to professionalize practice and professionalization of the practice requires training and retraining and interacting with people who have the experience on the field. CILT 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 in the transport sector.
“It takes all of us; land, rail, water and air to come together to make functional inter modal seamless transport in the country. It is a lot of hard work and FMOT is charged with the responsibility of this subsector and of course you know we have aviation standing alone on its own, but we must work together to have an efficient intermodal system of transportation using the four modes of transport”.
Maritime Bits checks revealed that CILT is the leading international professional body for all sectors of the transport and logistics industry. Founded in the United Kingdom in 1919 and 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 government and industry. The CILT is a global organisation with over 33,000 members working in over 100 countries.
CILT Nigeria was founded in 1958 and operates under the Royal Charter as an international branch or territory of CILT International. CILT Nigeria, like the international body is focused on education and training, certification, setting standards of practice, licensing of professionals in logistics, transport and supply chain management.Its curriculum is set by the international body that ensures that the standard of training is of global standards. The structure of CILT Nigeria has sections for each mode of transportation including aviation mode, road mode, rail mode, pipeline mode, maritime mode and logistics comprising of members in both public and private sectors who are engaged in operations and regulatory functions. Our youth arm, aptly christened Next Generation and the female arm WILAT are very vibrant and continue to extend the frontiers of learning with several seminars of international standards both physical and virtual.
