Ahead of its report, a delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on a visit to the Lagos Ports, restated the challenges affecting the growth of the maritime industry. The visit, which forms part of the body’s yearly checkup to determine the performance and challenges in its yearly Economic Outlook Review, afforded a firsthand contact by the IMF with reality at the ports, MUYIWA LUCAS writes.
When will the good days of the ports return? This was the question on the lips of stakeholders who joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation to tour the Lagos ports at the weekend.
The team, led by the IMF Mission Chief and Senior Resident, Representative for Nigeria African Department, Amine Mati, was on a tour to get materials for the publication of the IMF Economic Outlook Review.
The team will cover the three ports: APM Terminals, Greenview Development Terminal (GDNL) and Port Terminal Multiservices Limited (PTML).
The team lamented the absence of the National Single Window, scanners, poor logistics and the parlous state of access roads , saying they are major constraints to the development of the ports.
Mati, who explained why the delegation came to inspect the ports, sought speedy resolution of the problems.
“Port congestion and the clearance time still remain challenging. We are trying to determine the different policies and priorities put in place, particularly the scanners, national single window, which is very important to accelerate the process.
The roads outside the port is also important for efficiency increase. As trade is picking up, the port is an important aspect of the economy, particularly in Lagos where the activity is,” Mati said.
The host of the delegation, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello, described the IMF Economic Outlook review as “very important to Nigeria, especially now that the country is facing challenges for diversification of source of revenue”.
Bello described the ports as major in the North and Central African sub-region and the largest economy in Africa. He said the ports attracts between 40 and 60 percent of all the cargoes in the sub- region.
However, he expressed dismay that over 12 years after the ports were concessioned to private operators, there was still lack of efficiency.
The NSC, he assured, is working with the shipping firms to reduce the cost to about 30 percent and that both parties would soon go into an agreement.
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He said for now, there is 100 per cent physical cargo examination due to lack of scanners. He however assured that by second quarter of the year, these challenges would be addressed.
“We are trying to build, first of all, a port community system so that we will have operational synergy and then, of course, the National Single Window, which is the simplification of all processes. We need to be transparent. We have to reduce the corruption and automate the ports for faster clearance of cargoes.
“What we are doing is about 20-day cargo dwell time. We want to reduce it to seven. The ship turnaround time also is 4.1. We want to reduce it further. We want to attract more cargoes here, not only for imports, but also for exports and that is the whole issue.
“As we move to the ports, you will see that we lack efficiency at the ports. The ports are private sector driven, having been concessioned about 12 years back to the private sector, because we believe that the private sector should lead. However, there are logistics problems, one of which is infrastructure.
“The roads in and out of the port is a challenge and the government is working – constructing all the roads leading to the ports.
Besides, the government is also going to introduce rail services into the ports, because the problems have been that we are using one mode of transportation. The ports have been stretched beyond their capacity.”
“They are handling more cargoes than their intended capacity, so we have short-term, medium and long-term solutions for the ports,” Bello said.
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