Chairman Senate Committee on Land Transport, Senator Gbenga Ashafa on Wednesday stated that the passage of the Bill to Establish the Chattered institute of Logistics and Transport of Nigeria will enhance professionalism in the area of Logistics and Transportation Services in Nigeria. He also identified lack of professionalism and standardization as factors responsible for the relatively low contribution of the transport Sector to Nigerian GDP.
The Senator made this assertion while leading the debate on the 2nd Reading of the Bill on the floor of the Senate.
In his submission, Senator Ashafa stressed the importance of the Logistics and Transport sector to every economy. In his words, “The world economy is increasingly being driven by service based activities of various kinds with Logistics and Transport Service accounted for almost 71% of global GDP in 2010 and is expanding at a faster s at the forefront. As revealed in the 2011 World Development Report, the services rate.”
While decrying the relatively low contribution of the transportation and logistics sector to the Nigerian economy, he stated that “In the case of Nigeria its logistics sector is estimated to contribute over N200 Billion to our economy with an annual growth rate of 10%. The Transport sector’s estimated contribution is put at about 10% of the country’s GDP. “
He therefore identified the challenge as the lack of professionalism and standardization in Transport and logistics sector of the economy while also promising that the Chattered institute of Logistics and Transport is well positioned to close the void. In his submission “The challenge therefore is in the standardization of quality of their professional practice, licensing procedure, certification and development of ethics of the profession that will guarantee safety of operations, uniformity of practice and integrity.”
“The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport is well positioned to close this void and ensure enhanced service delivery.”
While contributing to the Bill, Senator Joshua Lidani supported the Bill saying that it is a recent happening around the world in terms of communications and logistics. Thus, it will help the standard of communication and logistics and also provide guidelines to foreigners and the citizens in general
Senator Dino Melaye while supporting the Bill stated that “Transportation is a major source of internally generated revenue in UK, US and other countries, a Bill like this promotes economic integration and social welfare of the people.”
The Bill passed the Second reading and was forwarded to the relevant committee of the Senate for further consideration.