The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)  has declared that the country has entered into another recession, but stakeholders have expressed optimism that the  nation’s maritime trade has the potential to generate over N7 trillion yearly, and take the economy out of the woods, OLUWAKEMI DAUDA reports.

Following the report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that the country has entered into recession, stakeholders said the maritime sector has the potential to generate over N7 trillion yearly, and take the economy out of the woods if  the Federal Government can give the sector  the necessary attention to bail out the economy.

Stakeholders who spoke with The Nation in separate interviews, urged the Federal Government to focus  on the maritime sector. They said the sector has so much to offer the economy in terms of jobs and wealth creation, reduction in inflation and debt profile and contribute meaningfully to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Over reliance on oil

Many stakeholders who spoke with this newspaper noted that the country has relied so much on the crude oil economy and urged the government to focus on other sources particularly the maritime trade and agricultural sector.

In rejuvenating the economy, a maritime analyst, Mr Semiu Olufowobi,  said maritime remains the key sector apart from oil and agriculture.

“Now is the time for the President Muhammadu Buhari administration government to focus on other sources particularly the maritime sector which covers both aquatic and marine spaces including oceans, seas, coasts, lakes, rivers and underground waters. Which also encompasses a range of productive sectors; Fisheries, Aquaculture, Tourism, Transport, Ship building, energy, bio-prospecting, under-water mining and related activities, all pointing towards economic prosperity, when adequately harnessed.

“Crude oil contributes to less than 10 per cent  of our GDP but accounts for roughly 90 per cent of our foreign-exchange earnings and half of the government revenues. The recession we are facing is based on the collapse in oil prices in the wake of the global pandemic which has drained government purse. The economic picture may remain cloudy till the end of next year if the government fails to pay adequate attention to maritime sector that has the potential to generate over N7trillion annually,” Olufowobi said.

Infrastructural development

To move the economy out of recession, the Former General Manager, Public Affairs of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Chief Michael Kayode Ajayi, said the government must  provide the infrastructural base in and out of the port system and see to human capital and manpower development.

Ajayi  decried the situation in Apapa and urged the government to fix the Oshodi/Apapa Expressway to boost business activities at port and generate more revenue to revitalise the economy.

He said the quick rehabilitation of the road from Tin-Can Island Port to Mile 2 area of Lagos will assist in salvaging the economy

To move out of recession, the Federal government, Ajayi said, needs to protect the nation’s over $14billion maritime trade from criminals operating on its territorial waters.

This, he said, would be achieved by strengthening the institutional capabilities of maritime agencies, thereby positioning the country as a  hub of maritime activities in West and Central Africa to boost the economy.

“Based on its potential, the nation’s maritime sector has come under siege by criminal elements who orchestrate acts of piracy, sea robbery, arms proliferation, crude oil theft, terrorism, migration, illegal and unregulated fishing and oil theft within  territorial waters

“Statistics show a total freight cost estimate of between $5 billion and $6 billion annually, while the maritime component of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is worth an estimated $8 billion alongside seabome transportation, oceanic extractive resource exploitation and export processing zones. Therefore, there is no other time than now  for the Federal Government to protect the nation’s over $14billion maritime trade,” Chief Ajayi said.

A safe, secure and efficient shipping industry, Ajayi  said, would assist in revitalising and diversifying the nation’s economy away from crude oil exploration to a  vibrant maritime trade.

Assist local shipowners

The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Transportation and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), a maritime lawyer, Mr Samson Felix said, must remove everything that is causing delay in the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Funds (CVFF), to assist the local shipowners to grow and contribute meaningfully to the economy at this difficult period.

“Maritime trade alone can service the nation’s annual budget if properly harnessed. The country is lagging behind in the comity of nations when it comes to ship ownership and shipping business. For instance, the world blue economy worth over $24 trillion. Undoubtedly, blue economy offers great opportunities for foreign exchange earnings. It is also unfortunate that the country is yet to take full advantage and harnessed enormous potential in the sector

Also, the Chairman, Nigerian Ports Consultative Council (NPCC) Otunba Kunle Folarin, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to assist the  industry to arrest its declining fortune and contribute meaningfully to the economy ” the way it does in other clime”.

Folarin lamented that the sector had not achieved its goals over the years and urged the government to formulate and implement policies and programmes that have the capacity to boost the nation’s economy.

He said the nation stands a chance to earn more revenue when policies were properly implemented.

The former member of Presidential Taskforce on the Reform of Nigeria Customs Service; Presidential Committee on Destination Inspection and Ministerial Committee on Fiscal Policy and Import Clearance Procedure, Mr Lucky Amewiro, said  maritime has the potential to move the country out of recession.

“We have written to the presidency that they should overhaul the maritime sector because if there is no reform, the country will die. The maritime sector is not properly organised. It has no procedure and is losing trillions of naira. When Customs tells you they are making N1 trillion, we have lost almost close to N20 trillion,’’  he said.

Former President, ANLCA, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, said the maritime sector has been on a steady decline since the last quarter of 2016. He stressed that the sector is where every attention should be shifted to bring the economy out of the woods.

Shittu said that trillions of naira is lost as revenue yearly due to the underdevelopment of the sea ports across the country.

” It was expected that the country may enter into another recession because of the global pandemic. Although, the nation’s sea ports were left open during the global crisis but the government seems to have forgotten that those who rule the seas rule the world. We had expected the government to have used the period to clear out port of the mess. Well, If we truly desire to end the  current recession as declared by the NBS and emerge among leading economies of the world, now is the time for our political leaders to pay closer attention to our maritime sector.”

A maritime lawyer, Dr Dipo Alaka berated the government for not paying adequate attention to the maritime sector.

Alaka said with Nigeria’s vast coastline measuring about 850 kilometres and an exclusive economic zone of well over 300,000 square kilometres, 3,000 kilometres of navigable inland waterways, six major seaports, 11 oil terminals, and over 170 private jetties, “our political leaders need not to be told the maritime sector is a money spinning industry that must be given the necessary attention like oil.”

As many countries are proposing to ban the use of fossil fuels and the world is  transitioning from oil,  stakeholders say one major sector that can bring the country out  of the woods is maritime due to its vast and enormous potential, OLUWAKEMI DAUDA reports.

The Maritime sector has been identified as a potent force that has the potenial to drive the Federal Government’s economic  diversification  agenda.

This was the  position of the Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration  and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr  Bashir Jamoh and other stakeholders  at  a paper  presentation  in Abuja.

Delivering a paper at the National Defence College (NDC) titled: “Maritime Security and National Development in Nigeria: The Role of NIMASA”, for NDC Course 29 participants, Jamoh said many countries were proposing to ban the use of fossil fuels, with the world transiting from oil to renewable energy.

According to him, maritime has enormous potential to drive sustainable development with huge investment opportunities in shipbuilding and repairs, offshore/floating spare parts sales and maintenance, freshwater bunkering and supply, dredging, and inland waterways transportation. While stating that about 75 percent of Gulf of Guinea-bound cargoes are destined for Nigeria, he said if properly harnessed, maritime could give the country 30 times more revenue than oil.

With a coastline of 852 kilometres bordering the Atlantic Ocean in the Gulf of Guinea and a maritime area of over 46,000 km2, Nigeria is no doubt blessed as a maritime nation with abundant resources to back its economic diversification and development drive.

Also, the country is endowed with mangrove swamps, creeks, coastal rivers, estuaries, bays, and near and offshore waters. Moreso, eight of the 36 states, with 25 per cent of the population, share the Atlantic Ocean coastline.

Currently, the global energy economy is undergoing a rapid transition, as over 14 countries and more than 20 cities around the world have proposed banning the sale of passenger vehicles powered by fossil fuels – petrol, liquefied petroleum gas, and diesel at some point in the future.

However, some oil producing countries around the world have started to think out of the box to see where they have a comparative advantage in other sectors. Going by this global trend, Nigeria cannot afford to be left out of this transition, as the maritime sector is being described as one of the major areas where its comparative advantage lies.

For the country not to be at the mercy of other nations, findings revealed that NIMASA  has embarked on improving security and infrastructure in the sector. Part of the aims of the development is to tackle security issues and to ensure that Nigerian waters are safe and secured for international trade.

The Vice-President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr Kayode Farinto, said given the nation’s potential on the ocean economy, there is no better time than now for government to support NIMASA in improving on maritime infrastructure to harness the sector’s full potential.

Findings revealed that the enormous economic resources in the nation’s waters can give the country 30 times more than what it gets from oil annually.

“For Nigeria to be effectively referred to, or maintain her status as a maritime nation, it must have vessels—merchant shipping vessels for carriage of her petroleum products and other cargoes generated in the country.

According to him, the advantages of having a national carrier are beyond the earnings from freight, but would include profound impact on the economy of the country.

He said: “The disadvantage Nigeria has in international trade is due to lack of vessels to carry her cargoes. If we have Nigerians to carry these cargoes, Nigeria will  be able to influence positively terms of trade, its terms of carriage—contracts of afreightment, and its  effects on the economy. Besides, the focus of economic diversification mustthe maritime industry.

“If Nigerians own vessels, they carry products, compete internationally, it therefore means that there are a lot of industries that will benefit or that will spring up, such as stevedoring companies, Nigerian insurance companies will automatically be involved in insuring or in the risk taking of the freight and this means financial growth for the insurance, the banks and other financial institutions apart from promoting peace and stability in the country.

Creation of genuine shipping industry

Currently, the country cannot claim to have a viable and an active shipping industry. This situation is, no doubt, a very big issue that needs to be addressed, as the country has a vast coastal stretch of about 870 kilometres. Indigenous ship owners have consistently maintained that if properly harnessed, a maritime lawyer, Dr Dipo Alaka, said the shipping sub sector can employ over five million Nigerians while saving the country trillions of naira in capital flight.

Other stakeholders, including experts, indigenous ship owners and relevant agencies of government have a common opinion about how the country is losing billions of naira annually for not putting its maritime sector at the reach of her citizens.

“While the various interests give different figures as to what the country loses annually to foreign-flagged vessels, the fact remains that what the country loses for not having a national shipping carrier in monetary and employment terms is unquantifiable,” Alaka said

According to him, about 80 per cent of the world trade by weight is done by sea. In the case of our country, over 80 per cent is done by sea. “Despite this huge potential, local capacity in the maritime industry remains despiteful. Nigeria imports over 100 million tonnes of cargo and general goods annually,” he said

Challenges of economic diversification through maritime:

“In recent years, maritime trade has become a ubiquitous vehicle for economic development and diversification and, for many regions and countries both in the developed and less developed worlds, the sector has become an integral element of economic development policy. Even those countries that, in the past, have had neither the desire nor the need to seek alternative economic sectors increasingly have been turning to maritime as a potentially effective means of achieving economic.

As normalcy returns to the port system after the EndSARS protest, the Nigerian Customs Service says its all-inclusiveness strategy will address critical issues raised by genuine protesters. The service also debunked claims of 21 “Customs Units” being peddled as requirement for cargo clearance. Yet, some are divided on the effect of the protest on port operations. Will the protests birth a new approach in port operations? MUYIWA LUCAS reports

It was a bizarre sight to behold. Hoodlums, in the wake of EndSARS protest, attacked Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) formations across the country. One of the hardest hit was the Adamawa Command.

Other commands so affected were the Ogun1 Idiroko, Jigawa, Kwara and Edo commands.

The corporate headquarters of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Marina, was also set ablaze and looted, including its facilities at Tin-Can Island Port (TCIP).

While the hoodlums attacked and looted Customs commands of various commodities, especially looking for bags of rice to cart away; the reason for the attack on the NPA building is not clear.

Now, clearing agents and other stakeholders are worried that with the attacks, business activities, especially as related to port operations may be affected.

Giving this early indication was the NPA Board Chairman, Chief George Rickets, who worried that the vandalisation of the NPA facility would affect the operations of the ports authority and the port economy.

However, the Managing Director of NPA, Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman, has since disagreed with Rickets, insisting that the arson on the authority’s facilities has no correlation with its operations.

“The situation has not affected operations of the Authority in any way as we have continued to render our services unhindered.”

Observers and stakeholders have however expressed surprise at the discordant tunes from the NPA management, saying that the opposing views may be an indication that may not well within the hierarchy.

Yet, for others, especially for Customs brokers and freight forwarders operating at TCIP, the protest was about the perceived high handedness of men of the NCS.

Particularly, the freight forwarders’ protest was centred on the activities of officers and men of the Federal Operations Unit (FoU), Zone A, who they accused of constituting a clog in cargo clearing process. For them, the constant harassment by FOU officers in the name of carrying out another round of checks on already-cleared goods after exiting the ports was unacceptable.

Now, with full operations returning to the ports, the Public Relations Officer, TCIP, Uche Ejesieme, said the command was not taking the complaints received from the protesters for granted, as legitimate complaints/accusations which concerned them would be addressed by the Service. He also pointed out that they were engaging the relevant commands with the view of finding lasting solutions to the complaints.

According to Ejesieme, while the command believes in the spirit of inconclusiveness in dealing with all stakeholders, he nonetheless stressed that the Customs would continue in this spirit without losing sight of its responsibilities nor lower the standard of its implementation of Federal Government’s policies.

But the EndSARS protest may just have provided a veil to vent their frustrations openly. Before now, freight forwarders had complained about the array of units they had to go through before clearing their wares.

According to them, the units are Form M, PAAR, Unblocking, Abandoned, Examination/Report, DC Report, Releasing, DC Stamping, Gate and Exiting. Others are Valuation, CPC Q and A (Query and Amendment), APM, DC Administration , DC Compliance, CAC monitoring, CIU, Enforcement, Customs Police, OC Gate, Gate Officers and PCA; FOU; Strike force and Head Quarters squad.

Ejesieme, however, explained that the role of the NCS in the trade value chain was limited to examination and release of cargo. This is because the automated system allows for self-assessment/declaration by the importer or his agent; hence, the need for compliance by traders and freight forwarders.

“Therefore whatever you declare would be captured and treated as such except when physical examination proves otherwise,” he said.

For the import procedure, Ejesieme explained thus: “Any eligible importer is expected to fill a Form M with the designated bank, attaching all relevant import documents, which will be processed by the bank and uploaded to customs portal for issuance of PAAR. PAAR is issued based on the information from the importer. Once issued, you proceed to the port for clearance of cargo. Once the importer makes the declaration on our NICIS 2 platform, SELECTIVITY engine is triggered to the appropriate lane and your SGD automatically assigned to a particular Releasing officer for examination and release of cargo.”

Ejesieme further said the interference of any other unit was usually on the outcome of physical examination or privileged intelligence report. According to him, of the alleged 21 units, some are statutory requirements for documentation, some for checks and balances, while the rest are actually figments of the peoples’ imagination.

He said Customs and the clearing agents have an obligation to the Federal Government as a regulator and a facilitator and as such both sides should ensure compliance as this would help in reducing the constant friction between both parties.

By Muyiwa Lucas

Licensed Customs agents in Eastern Ports have frowned at what they called freight differentials between Lagos and Eastern Ports, arguing that there is no justification for the development. They maintained that such a system favours Lagos ports ahead of the Eastern ports.

Speaking at the 10th Anniversary of Global Rays magazine, a maritime and Energy newsmagazine, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, the Chairman of the occasion, Sir Henry Njoku, noted that the differentials had become a huge discouragement against patronage of Eastern ports aside bad roads and insecurity bedeviling the ports.

Njoku, who was represented by Michael Ebealu, a former Chairman, Oil and Gas Free Zone of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, said: “A situation where we have a differential of $1, 500 between the Lagos and Eastern ports will always encourage shippers to prefer Lagos Ports and abandon other areas.”

Read Also: NIMASA moves to change terms of trade on crude freighting

The publisher of the Global Rays Magazine, Apostle Tony Nzekwe, expressed happiness on the feats the Global Rays has achieved in 10 years of its existence. He revealed that it is God that has seen him through adding that, dedication, commitment, consistency and follow-up, including purpose-driven life are, among the factors,that saw him through. “It wasn’t easy at first, but today, God has been faithful.”

The event also witnessed the presentation of awards of excellence to deserving stakeholders in the marine industry, who have distinguished themselves in the sector, including the CGC, Col. Hammed Ali (rtd).