The Nation Newspaper

Category: Maritime

  • CEMA Bill passage excites Customs

    The passage of the new Customs and Excise Management Re-enactment Bill into law by the Senate Committee on Finance will enable officers and men of the service to play a leading role in international trade.

    Speaking with reporters in Lagos, Custom’s Public Relations, Mr Wale Adeniyi, said there were many inhibitions on the path of the Nigeria Customs Service as a result of its obsolete CEMA laws, which it was using to operate.

    But with the passage of the law by the upper legislative chamber, Adeniyi expressed the hope that once the law receives the blessing of the House of Representatives from where it is expected to get the assent of the President, the Nigeria Customs Service will play a lead role in Nigeria’s international trade.

    The Customs image maker explained that one of the areas the service has experienced challenges is ICT, most especially on the Single Window Project which, according to him,  until now, Customs cannot boast of being the sole owner of the concept.

    He said: “You will recall that the Bill that used to be the extant law of the Customs was enacted in 1958, between that time and now a lot of changes have taken place in international trade, procedures have changed, processes have changed, the volume and complexities of international trade have gone beyond what the old law could provide for.

    “So, we are excited that the new law will bring in some of these changes and put Customs in a proactive manner and be backed by law.

    “There are number of issues we would have loved to solve, but each time we try to take the step we remember that we are not backed by law to do it and we have to take a step backwards, especially in the areas of ICT and the Single Window Project.”

     

  • Service provider, agents bicker

    • Operator slumps at terminal

    The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Onne Chapter has accused one of the service providers engaged by the Federal Government to work with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on destination inspection of imports of extorting their members.

    The Chairman of the chapter, Prince Prestige Ossy, told The Nation that “SGS extorts and exploits importers and licensed customs agents at Onne Port.”

    He alleged that the company charged importers and Customs agents high freight and clearing charges without corresponding services to justify their claims.

    “With the newly acquired space provided for them at Onne with a view to improving on the number of containers to be scanned, the company still scanned 30 to 40 containers in a day, while over 70 containers are lined up for scanning without adequate scanners, which has resulted to artificial demurrage created by SGS on importers. Most of this demurrage costs several millions of Naira,” he alleged.

    But speaking on behalf of the company, Mr Lanre Badmus, denied the allegation.

    He said SGS had been carrying out its services at the port diligently, without extorting anybody.

    “The allegations are fabricated lies. We are doing our work as directed by the government and we have our equipment on ground to carry out our responsibility,” he said.

    Meanwhile, two licensed Customs agents slumped last week on the premises of the Port and Terminal Multiservices Limited (PTML). This was allegedly as a result of suffocation at the overcrowded and poorly ventilated hall where gate passes are being issued to the agents to effect the final release of their consignments from the Customs.

    The Chairman of the PTML chapter of the ANLCA, Prince Bola Adeniran, told reporters that a member of his association has died of suffocation in the same hall after  he slumped and was rushed to the hospital.

    He gave the identity of the deceased ANLCA member as Adesina Olatunji.

    He alleged that the hall in which agents are being attended to has no air conditioner and proper ventilation. He said ANLCA had applied for the hall to be made conducive. But that their request was not granted.

    Also, there was a protest by clearing agents at Tin Can Island port over alleged high handedness of two Customs officers at the command.

    They called on the command’s Area Controller, Mr Zakari Jubril, to remove the two officers because of their alleged highhandedness.

     

  • NPA contributes N15b to govt coffers

    The Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) contributed N15 billion to the Federation Account last year, Transport Minister Senator Idris Umar has said.

    Speaking with reporters in Abuja, Umar said NPA generated N128 billion during the period.

    He said concessionaires had invested $475 million (N76 billion) on acquisition of modern cargo handling equipment and $450 million (N72 billion) on terminal development since 2006 when port reform started.

    “In 2006, the Federal Government carried out comprehensive port reforms that made NPA the landlord and technical regulator. Government delineated the ports into terminals and concessioned them to private operators. Terminal operators are responsible for all aspects of cargo handling and terminal upgrading under the concession agreement.

    “As a result of the reforms, the overall efficiency in the ports has been steadily improving, and there is appreciable increase in infrastructure provision and maintenance by the government and the concessionaires,” Umar said.

    NPA, he said, had completed massive rehabilitation of the East and West Moles (breakwaters) in Lagos at N16.6 billion.

    The rehabilitation, according to him, was done by the China Civil Engineering Construction Company; Royal Haskoning and Yolas Consultants were the project’s foreign and local consultants.

    Umar said rehabilitation on the quay wall apron of the Tin Can Island Port, Lagos was completed at N3.64 billion; and the rehabilitation and expansion of the NPA Headquarters in Marina, Lagos awarded to Sageto Nigeria Limited at N5 billion, is 42 per cent completed.

     

     

     

    The budget performance of the NPA is particularly remarkable, when juxtaposed against that of a sister-parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Transport – the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), which stood at 45.64 per cent, while the Agency remitted N309 million into the coffers of the government.

    Speaking with reporters after his appointment, the Managing Director, NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi, had expressed disappointment over the low level of budget performance attained by the organisation in the previous years.

    At the opening of a two-day NPA Strategy Session on Project Implementation held in Lagos, Abdullahi had said: “Among the various reforms undertaken by the Federal Government is the passage into law of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 aimed at bringing efficiency and value for money gains to public procurement. It established processes, approval thresholds and due process requirements for public sector procurement of goods, works and services. However, this has not translated to good performance of our capital budget for some years running necessitating that we adopt a new and sustainable strategy in order to derive full benefit of the process.”

    The NPA boss said: “To be sincere with you, the main essence of having this forum is because of lack of performance. I have been under intense pressure, in fact the management has been under intense pressure,

    “There is, therefore, the need to study the procurement process in order to ensure that we enhance our procurement programmes with a view to improving our budget performance for the upcoming years,” he said

     

  • NAGAFF seeks support for APM terminals

    The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has urged port users and other stakeholders to appreciate the efforts of terminal operators in promoting port operation and efficiency in the country.

    NAGAFF’s founder, Dr Boniface Aniebonam, made the call while speaking with reporters in Lagos.

    He decried what he called the pull-him-down attitude of some stakeholders against the terminal operator.

    Aniebonam noted that before the APM Terminals took over operation of the Apapa container terminal in March 2006, there was congestion at the terminal with vessel waiting time averaging 40 days at the port. But, since they took over, he said, the vessels turn- around time has reduced drastically.

    He said the Ghanaian government held talks with the management of the APM Terminals at Apapa port on how to replicate what they are doing to promote port business in their country.

    “I do know that Nigeria is not the only place that they (APM Terminals) are working. I am also aware through my strategic position that even the government of Ghana – because I have the privilege of having a friend who is in the Ghanaian government – came here to hold a meeting with APMT and that has to do with the level of work they are doing here. That means if some people outside Nigeria appreciate them; why can’t we appreciate them?

    “Before APM Terminals took over operation, everywhere was chaotic. No cargo handling equipment, no defined processes and procedures etc. There was also vessel queue with ships waiting for an average of 40 days to get berthing space. Consequently, shipping companies slammed what was called congestion surcharge on the port. The congestion surcharges were paid directly by the importers and this amounted to about $200 million per annum,” he said.

     

  • Academy shops for N3b to train cadets

    The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom State requires over N3 billion to send its first batch of cadets on sea time training abroad, its Rector, Joshua Okpo, has said.

    The students, he said, would need to be trained on ocean-going vessels for the mandatory 18 months with some shipping companies in Europe and South Africa.

    Okpo told reporters in Lagos that each of the cadets would require between N8 million and N9 million for the training.

    He said 100 students from the nautical sciences department had been listed for the pilot scheme.

    The Rector said 150 students would be selected from the marine engineering department of the school, adding that the number of students from the electrical electronics department was yet to be included in the proposed exercise.

    He said the proposal sent to the government was aimed at solving the problem of sea time training for cadets.

    The problem, he hoped, would soon be solved as the management of the school has decided to commit internally generated funds to sponsor some of the best students for the training.

    The academy decided to solve the problem of the mariners, because the mandate of the academy is how to train the mariners; that is the nautical sciences and marine engineer cadets.

    “We have initiated a move to get them employed on board ships in Europe and South Africa and what we are doing for now is to engage a consultant Messrs Bramah to enable us to get the cadets, about 100 mariners from nautical science and 150 from marine engineering cadets to go on board vessels.

    “We are going to pay about N9 million for one cadet for 18 months for sea time; so with that, we will handle the issue of sea time for our cadets. Although we have made the proposal known to the government, we are still waiting for the approval so that we can kick start the programme.

    “Apart from that, management has decided that we are going to commit some money from internally generated revenue to start a programme whereby 10 or 20 brightest mariners are given the opportunity to board vessels of shipping companies that we have relationship with,” he said.

  • Importers shun scanner

    Importers shun scanner

    Importers and their clearing agents are shunning the scanner at the Seme border, The Nation has learnt.

    The importers, it was learnt, prefer 100 per cent examination of their cargoes, which enable them to carry contraband undetected.

    The scanner, which was installed at the border by Global Scan Systems Limited (GSSL) for $3.5 million (about N700 million) has been underutilised since its installation in 2006.

    The scanner was installed to curb smuggling of arms and ammunition and ease the clearance of goods.

    Investigation at the border last week showed that the scanner was not used from 8.am to 3.pm daily; the operator claims that it is used between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

    For over six hours last Wednesday and Thursday, no truck entered the GSSL facility for scanning.

    Security sources at the border said though the scanner is effective, many importers prefer physical examination of their goods by the Customs.

    The machine, sources said, has the capacity to scan more than 160 vehicles in eight hours and 480 in 24 hours of three shifts daily.

    The highest number of vehicles scanned in a year since the machine was installed is about 1,118 and this was last year.

    For instance, it was learnt that between January and December 2010, 83 vehicles passed through the scanner. In January and March, the firm scanned only one vehicle each month. Five vehicles were scanned in February, six in April.

    But between May and August, no vehicle was taken to the scanning site. Five vehicles were scanned in September; 14, October; 35, November and 16, December.

    Investigation also revealed that in 2011, 407 vehicles were scanned. Between January and last month, the company has so far scanned 838 vehicles.

    Most of the vehicles that passed through the scanner were mainly those carrying ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) goods, most of the trucks carrying non-homogenous goods, sources said, prefer physical examination by Customs.

    Contacted, GSSL Public Relations Officer, Ajile Iroajugh, said the size of trucks operating at Seme border are bigger compared to others that operate in the Lagos and Tin Can Island ports.

    The scanners, he said, had the capacity to scan all the vehicles coming through the border.

    He said the scanner could assess 160 trucks per eight hours, adding that it can scan 20 trucks within one hour.

    He said the mobile facility at the ever-busy border takes three minutes to assess a truck.

    A fixed scanner, he said, had just been installed by the company for $9 million (about N1.8 billion) to boost its operations.

    He said because of some elements in the Smiths Heimann scanning equipment, it must be constantly powered in order not to develop technical hitches, lamenting that the turn out of trucks for scanning is low.

    “What we are scanning here mainly are ETLS goods, and those are the goods they put to us for scanning. There are two basic types of imports here; we have general import and ETLS, but when it concerns general goods, they say no to that based on its heterogeneous nature,” he said.

  • Customs cuts tariff on cars

    The Area Controller, Nigeria Customs Service, Tin Can Island Command, Zakari Jubril, has reduced the tariff on imported vehicles to facilitate trade at the port.

    Jubril, who was redeployed from the Ports and Terminal Multiservices Limited (PTML) Command, reduced the tariff, on assumption of work at Tin Can.

    Speaking with The Nation, the Chairman, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Mr Uche Nwabude, said importers hitherto diverted vehicles to PTML because of high tariff.

    He said: “If you get to Tin Can, there are a lot of changes going on. The issue of high tariff has been addressed. Before now, the valuation issued on vehicles used to be very high, but everything has been normalised.”

    According to him, a car that was usually given at N350,000 has been reduced to N230,000.

    The Lagos Industrial Command of the Customs collected N771.05 million in April, the Area Controller of the command, Mrs Nkem Nzeribe, has said.

    She said the April revenue figure was N85 million higher than that of March. “This Command made N686 million in March,” she added.

    Mrs Nzeribe said the April revenue was made only from excise duties, explaining that no revenue accrued to the command from licence fees.

    She said firms producing and importing fruit juice, beverages, recharge cards and cosmetics should be made to also pay excise duty.

    She said the government’s policy that “de-excised” so many duty paying factories and products had reduced the revenue generated by the command.

     

  • Congestion looms as 10,000 containers are trapped at ports

    Congestion looms as 10,000 containers are trapped at ports

    • No cause for alarm, say terminal operators

    Over 10,000 containers are trapped at the Lagos ports, making congestion imminent.

    The containers got trapped because of the inability of the terminal operators to cope, importers said.

    The terminal operators, it was learnt, cannot position for scanning more than 200 of the 5,000 containers that arrive at the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports in Lagos daily.

    The operators, however, say they have the capacity to position over 1,000 containers for scanning daily, adding that they are doing 200 because of an agreement with Customs.

    They are blaming the problem on lack of equipment, sources said.

    The spokesman of the importers, Mr Folagbade Mosaku, claimed that the operators are asking them to pay for their self-inflicted problems.

    Investigation by The Nation showed that over 100 importers and their clearing agents met secretly in Lagos last Friday to strategise on how to shut down the port over what they called the ineptitude of some operators.

    The importers and their clearing agents alleged that in some terminals they are compelled to pay arbitrary charges that are not part of the agreement the operators signed with the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

    When The Nation visited Apapa port last Friday, many trailers were kept on the highways and the port access roads because of the operators’ inability to load and off load containers.

    The government, port security sources said, must find out why the operators can only position more than 200 containers for scanning daily despite the large number of containers shipped into the country.

    From the beginning of this month, over 6,000 of the 10,000 containers have been trapped at the Apapa port. The importers are also compelled to pay N1,500 as storage fee on each of the containers for the first seven days after arrival.

    At the expiration of the seven days, importers pay N3,000 on each container daily and after 14 days, they pay N9,000 as storage fee for the 20-foot container and N12,000 for the 40-foot container.

    Some agents accused the operators of asking them to pay storage fee for the number of days they had to wait before their containers are positioned for examination.

    The charges, the agents said, are inimical to their business.

    The Chairman, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Apapa chapter, Mr Olumide Fakanlu, said the number of containers the operators position for scanning is worrisome.

    The operators, Fakunbi said, disappoint customers when it comes to effective service delivery. He urged the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar and the Board of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to call them to order.

    Over 60 per cent of shippers, whose goods arrived at the Lagos Ports between January and last week, he said, had paid over N1 billion for the delay that arose from the positioning of their containers for scanning.

    He warned that unless the government addresses the problem, the congestion will persist.

    But the image maker of the APM Terminals, Mr Bolaji Akinola, denied the allegation.

    He said the terminals had invested billions of naira on equipment to position over 1,000 containers daily.

    His words: “APMT has the capacity to position much more than 200 containers daily. The 200 we position daily is the quantity jointly agreed between Customs and APMT.”

    Akinola added that APMT is also increasing its container stacking area at Apapa by additional 300,000 square metres. The company, he said, would soon take delivery of the first batch of five Rubber-Tyred-Gantry (RTG) cranes it ordered from Kone Cranes as part of terminal yard redevelopment and expansion.

  • Govt moves to make dry ports functional

    The Federal Government is set to make dry ports functional to reduce congestion at sea ports and bring shipping services to importers’ doorsteps.

    The government, sources said, would soon declare the dry ports as ports of destination and centres of exports in all its locations.

    The dry ports are in Ibadan, Kano, Isiala-Ngwa (Abia), Jos, Funtua (Katsina State) and Maiduguri.

    Acting Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council Mr Hassan Bello said the dry ports, otherwise known as Inland Container Depots and Container Freight Stations, were created by the government to solve the perennial problem of port congestion.

    He said the dry ports were being driven by Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, adding that the government had been facing the teething problem of appropriate legal framework for the dry ports project to take off.

    He said the dry ports would be more effective if arrangement was made for an effective rail service.

    The Shippers’ Council boss said the Federal Ministry of Transport recently inaugurated a committee to examine the challenges facing the take-off of the dry ports.

    The management of the Council, sources said, is also set to stop terminal operators from introducing arbitrary charges at port to facilitate trade at ports.

    Shippers’ Council, sources said, is worried about the unholy activities of some terminal operators who will like to charge arbitrarily and it is set to checkmate their activities.

    Bello, the source said, would soon announce port charges that would be acceptable to importers, exporters and the port concessionaires.

    The Council, investigation showed, has succeeded in stabilising freight rates on Nigerian-bound cargoes to boost economy activities in the country.

    Bello told the paper that the council had embarked on negotiation with global shipping lines to stabilise freight rates.

    He said the appointment of a commercial regulator for the shipping industry would end the monopoly of powers.

    Bello said commercial regulation would increase and encourage participation of more private investors and increase the mechanism for settlement of disputes.

    He said the regulator would control the entry and exit of operators, adding that the NSC had been saddled with that responsibility.

    The chief executive also noted that there was a tendency by some shippers to short-change the government through false declaration.

    False declaration, he explained, would add so many days to the cargo dwell time, adding that this would result to demurrage and congestion.

    “We have been intervening in areas of tariffs, benchmark-ing and service delivery. A law passed in 1978 must have got some requirements for review. Now that port facilities are run by the private sector; large reforms in rail, road sector, it is expected there should be a commercial regulator,” he said.

  • Congestion looms as 10,000 containers are trapped at ports

    Congestion looms as 10,000 containers are trapped at ports

    • No cause for alarm, say terminal operators

    Over 10,000 containers are trapped at the Lagos ports, making congestion imminent.

    The containers got trapped because of the inability of the terminal operators to cope, importers said.

    The terminal operators, it was learnt, cannot position for scanning more than 200 of the 5,000 containers that arrive at the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports in Lagos daily.

    The operators, however, say they have the capacity to position over 1,000 containers for scanning daily, adding that they are doing 200 because of an agreement with Customs.

    They are blaming the problem on lack of equipment, sources said.

    The spokesman of the importers, Mr Folagbade Mosaku, claimed that the operators are asking them to pay for their self-inflicted problems.

    Investigation by The Nation showed that over 100 importers and their clearing agents met secretly in Lagos last Friday to strategise on how to shut down the port over what they called the ineptitude of some operators.

    The importers and their clearing agents alleged that in some terminals they are compelled to pay arbitrary charges that are not part of the agreement the operators signed with the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

    When The Nation visited Apapa port last Friday, many trailers were kept on the highways and the port access roads because of the operators’ inability to load and off load containers.

    The government, port security sources said, must find out why the operators can only position more than 200 containers for scanning daily despite the large number of containers shipped into the country.

    From the beginning of this month, over 6,000 of the 10,000 containers have been trapped at the Apapa port. The importers are also compelled to pay N1,500 as storage fee on each of the containers for the first seven days after arrival.

    At the expiration of the seven days, importers pay N3,000 on each container daily and after 14 days, they pay N9,000 as storage fee for the 20-foot container and N12,000 for the 40-foot container.

    Some agents accused the operators of asking them to pay storage fee for the number of days they had to wait before their containers are positioned for examination.

    The charges, the agents said, are inimical to their business.

    The Chairman, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Apapa chapter, Mr Olumide Fakanlu, said the number of containers the operators position for scanning is worrisome.

    The operators, Fakunbi said, disappoint customers when it comes to effective service delivery. He urged the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar and the Board of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to call them to order.

    Over 60 per cent of shippers, whose goods arrived at the Lagos Ports between January and last week, he said, had paid over N1 billion for the delay that arose from the positioning of their containers for scanning.

    He warned that unless the government addresses the problem, the congestion will persist.

    But the image maker of the APM Terminals, Mr Bolaji Akinola, denied the allegation.

    He said the terminals had invested billions of naira on equipment to position over 1,000 containers daily.

    His words: “APMT has the capacity to position much more than 200 containers daily. The 200 we position daily is the quantity jointly agreed between Customs and APMT.”

    Akinola added that APMT is also increasing its container stacking area at Apapa by additional 300,000 square metres. The company, he said, would soon take delivery of the first batch of five Rubber-Tyred-Gantry (RTG) cranes it ordered from Kone Cranes as part of terminal yard redevelopment and expansion.