PSTT National Cordinator, Moses Fadipe, Others Promoted Director At Shippers Council

By DAPO OLAWUNI

Congratulations are currently in order, as the Nigerian Shippers Council has just promoted the National Cordinator of the Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) Mr Moses Fadipe alongside seven others to the position of a Director at the agency.

Popular Public Relations expert, Mr Rotimi Anifowose is also a beneficiary of the promotion as he has now been made a Director.

Mrs Adaku Okam, Director of Human Resources of the Council confirmed exclusively to DAILY TREND on Wednesday that the comprehensive list of the new promotion exercise would be made available before the end of the week, both Directorate and other grade levels.

Our correspondent gathered the Director promotion was done based on political zones according to how the officers passed their examination.

While presenting a paper titled “EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT CORRUPT FREE PORT SYSTEM SINCE THE ADVENT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PORT STANDING TEAM INITIATIVE” recently at the Portbizness 10th year anniversary which held on Thursday, June 22, 2023 at Rockview Hotel, Apapa, Lagos State gave an abridged story of his journey in the Nigerian Shippers Council.

He said “I started work at the Nigeria Shippers Council in 1992 with a 2:1 Bachelor of Science Degree in Statistics/Demography. I started work at the Lagos Office
as a Port Officer and after some years | was sent to Ibadan to go there and set up the new Area Office.

“At that time, i was just a Level 10 Officer, you can imagine when they were setting up a new office meant for officers from Grade-level 12 to 14 but I didn’t know why they felt that i should be the one they will send to go and set it up.

“Driven by my passion and never deterred by whatever challenge that comes on my way, I was not only able to set up the Area Office, but i was able to accomplish the most important task for which the office was set up, which was establishing the Oyo State Shippers Association and did its inauguration in record time.

“Because of the huge impact we were making on the stakeholders and shippers in Ibadan, solving the problems they were coming forward with to their satisfaction, they started making demand on the Council to upgrade the Ibadan Area Office to a Zonal Office to take care of the entire South West and the Nigerian Shippers Council acceded to their request in 2002. And the Council in its wisdom to sustain the rapid progress being recorded there, they left me, a Leve! 12 Officer at that time, to remain there like the second in command to the Level 16 Officer who was the head of the zonal office.

“I was later transferred back to Lagos in 2007 when I became the President of the Senior Staff Association, Nigerian Shippers Council Chapter. When I returned to Lagos, as a labour leader, i pursued my struggle for better condition service for the staff with the same zeal with which i go about my work.

“Consequently, we recorded lot of successes in our fight for staff welfare. And I can tell you that most of the welfare packages our staff enjoy today were recorded during my regime.

“I can say that those successes were what i consider as my first honour in service as the ES/CEO of Shippers Council at that time, Captain Adamu Biu praised me in the presence of the staff during a town hail meeting that he had never seen a person like me that will fight for the welfare of his members with that that kind of zeal without any form of gratification.

“To the glory of God, i was later elected the National Treasurer of the Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporation and Government Owned Companies (SSASCGOC), the umbrella body of senior staff all over the federation.

“After that fight for staff welfare, i travelled to the United Kingdom in 2010 for a Master’s Degree in International Transport at the University of Cardiff which I had deferred in 2009 because of that struggle for staff welfare which i mentioned earlier.

“On my return from Cardiff, in 2011, the Council had set up a committee which recommended that the Complaints should be a full-fledged unit and it took off in 2011 headed by Alhaji Tahir Idris, who was transferred from the Kano Zonal Officer. The Unit had started four months that year before I came back.

“Immediately I came back, the CEO ordered my deployment to the Unit. So, I became Alhaji Idris’s second in command.
From 2011 to 2015, it was all success stories because i held fort for my boss and my boss kept saying that Fadipe is an officer you can depend on.

“However, in 2015, he was promoted to the position of a Deputy Director and I became an Assistant Director.
With my boss moving to a higher responsibility, I became the head of the Complaints Unit.

“During my time in that Unit, the industry knows and they tell the story of my unrivalled achievements for the industry. In my first year in that Unit, i recovered over N1.2 billion for the industry stakeholders; the records are there till today. They were monies people were cheated of, or over-billed; they were refunded.

“You will also recall that we became a regulator in 2015. It was the work of the Complaints Unit that earned us that regulatory function. Because at that material time, people could feel and see what we are doing; before then it was an abstract”

“In 2020, when the Federal Government made the Nigeria Shippers’ Council the lead agency for the implementation of the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM), the management again said that I should drive it.

“It was the implementation of the NPPM that led to the birth of the Port Standing Task Team, known as PSTT. When PSTT was formed, and they said that I should go and do it, the prospect of using this golden opportunity to bring to fruition the change I have always desired for the industry sparked the fire in me.

“I told myself that this is service to humanity and I was going to use the instrumentality of the PSTT and the NPPM to bring the needed transformation in the Nigerian port industry and write my name in gold as I now have all the powers i needed; power of arrest, detainment and all what not to enforce compliance. And the result is the changes we are all witnessing in the industry today.

“The work of the team has been praised for its transparency and effectiveness and has helped to build confidence in the country’s maritime sector. The strict monitoring of joint cargo examinations by the Task Team has also yielded significant benefits.

“This has helped to ensure that all cargoes are property examined and cleared before being released, promoting efficiency and transparency in the clearance process. This has helped to improve the overall efficiency of cargo clearance and turnaround time.

“Another significant achievement has been the success of “Operation Free the Ports’ Corridor’ in dismantling illegal checkpoints and extortion points along the port’s corridor. This has helped to reduce the incidence of corrupt practices and the high cost of doing business in our ports”