The Nation Newspaper

Category: Maritime

  • Hope rises on full Cabotage implementation

    Hope for proper implementation of the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act 2003 rose last week with stakeholders restating their com-mitment to the law.

    At a meeting last week, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and key industry players, agreed to end Cabotage waivers for non-indigenous ship owners over the next five years.

    Part III, Section 9-11 of the Act provides for waivers for ownership and manning of Cabotage vessels by Nigerians and build vessels, where capacity is lacking.

    However, to encourage more indigenous participation, NIMASA  said it will stop the practice and implement the New Cabotage Compliance Strategy (NCCS) under which certain categories of waivers have been suspended. Basically, the Cabotage Act 2003 is aimed at promoting indigenous participation of locals in shipping.

    At the meeting held in Lagos, the need for collaboration to facilitate optimal implementation of the Cabotage Act was highlighted. NIMASA’s Director-General, Dakuku Peterside, said the agency was determined to ensure that Cabotage waivers were stopped.

    Represented by the Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services, Mr. Gambo Ahmed, the DG said the agency’s mandate is to promote and regulate shipping, and not to stifle any business.

    He assured of the commitment of NIMASA to promoting, protecting and providing the enabling environment to ensure the growth of indigenous ship owners so that they could compete with their international counterparts.

    According to him, part of the strategy to end the issuance of waivers was to develop infrastructural capacity and human capital for training seafarers to attain global standards. The DG urged stake-holders to cooperate with the agency to realise the implementation of maritime law, saying it held huge potential to create jobs, add to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and bring about a boom in the economy.

    Similarly, a former DG of the agency, Mr. Temisan Omatseye, noted that NIMASA was the only agency recognised by the government to regulate shipping. He urged the agency to use the powers bestowed on it by law to ensure compliance with the Cabotage Act and apply punitive measures against erring shipping firms.

    “If we don’t begin to enforce the Cabotage law, the use of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) will be defeated,” Omatseye added.

    Supporting the initiative, the Managing Director, TMC Shipping Pvt., India, Mr. Neeraj Kumar, com-mended the agency for implemen-tating the Act, stating that the ports are critical to economic growth.

    Kumar pledged India’s willingness to collaborate with Nigeria, especially in shipbuilding.

    Other participants at the event applauded the efforts of the management of NIMASA to actualising a robust maritime sector through various stakeholder-oriented programmes and promised their support and cooperation.

    Peterside also restated NIMASA’s commitment to partnerships with international institutions for sea time training of Nigerians under the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP).

    Speaking during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NIMASA and the Maritime Academy of India in Lagos, he said partnership is the way to go.

    The MoU covers on-board sea time training of some graduates of the NSDP programme. Sixty cadets, to be trained in three batches of 20 each, will benefit from this partnership.

    “This MoU will help reduce the amount of cadets awaiting sea-time by clearing up the first 60 of the backlog in three batches of 20 each,” Dakuku stated.

    He expressed NIMASA’s determination to explore and use appropriate avenues to ensure that seafarers got the right exposure and training to excel in the global maritime space, saying in the future Nigeria would be a supplier of qualified seafarers to the world.

    Dakuku said the agency was negotiating with other academies with access to ocean going training vessels in countries like Turkey and United Kingdom to secure sea time for Nigerians.

    NIMASA’s aim, he further said, is to replicate in Nigeria the progress recorded under similar partnerships in countries, like Philippines, in the area of providing seafarers to the international market.

    Kumar praised NIMASA’s effort to develop the seafarers and commended the NSDP initiative. TMC is India’s leading maritime education, training and recruitment firm.

    NIMASA has trained about 2000 Nigerians under the NSDP scheme, with many cadets at various stages of completion of the programme. The agency is tackling the issue of sea-time training for the cadets through full sponsorship, in partnership with some international institutions that have access to ocean-going training vessels.

    Some cadets have done their on-board sea-time training under the first phase of the NIMASA fully-sponsored sea time training, facilitated alongside the Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Marine Transportation in Alexandria, Egypt. On-board training for another set of cadets was facilitated by the South Tyneside College, United Kingdom (UK).

    The agency has also trained some Nigerians under a partnership with universities in The Philippines.

  • Freight forwarders deplore port concession

    The All Ports Unified Freight Forwarding Practitioners Association is worried about cargo facilitation, import and export, at Lagos Ports. It blamed shipping companies and terminal operators for what it called “frustration of export  trade,” alleging that additional levies are imposed on importers aside requisite fees. To the body, this leads to delay in exportation of goods from the terminals.

    Its President, Mike Okorie, told reporters at Apapa that the port concession agreement between the Federal Government and the concessionaires had not achieved much in addressing the bottlenecks in cargo clearance at the port.

    According to Okorie, exports are rejected overseas because of the delay caused by shipping lines and terminal operators.

    He added that due to lack of adequate infrastructure at the terminals, some goods got spoilt while on transit due to delayed take-off by shipping lines.

    “We have members who engage in exportation of food stuff and if these commodities  stay long before shipping commences, then it is a problem. Take for instance, beans; this is one commodity that is supposed to be given easy access at the port for onward shipping overseas; but the port conces-sionaires and shipping lines with their frivolous charges make things difficult for us,” Okorie said.

    He added that beans was very peculiar because most of the cargoes laden with beans were returned to the country for being in unacceptable state, a situation caused by the delay such cargo must have experienced at Nigerian ports.

    He alleged that shipping companies rip-off indigenous exporters and freight forwarders with arbitrary charges. He added that export could equate import only if the government would encourage shippers through policies that boost international trade.

    “We are not here to indict anybody but the truth is that government should encourage exportation,” he said.

    Okorie, who also frowned at the gridlock along the port corridors, said his association has concluded plans to engage the government on how to address some of the anomalies.

    One of the areas to focus on, he explained, is for the government to inject life into the operational activities in the eastern ports. When this is done, he explained, it will help in striking a balance across ports in the country, create competitiveness and enabling business environment.

    “It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to make all ports in Nigeria viable and  competitive,” he submitted.

  • New CAC for Apapa port

    A New Area Controller (CAC), Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has been appointed to take over affairs at the Command.

    The due to delay in documentation processesAC, Mohammed Abba-Kura, until his appointment, was the Comptroller in charge of Zone A office of  Post Clearance Audit (PCA).

    Abba-Kura succeeds Comptroller Abubakar Bashir, who was recently appointed as Acting Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) and posted to the service headquarters in Abuja.

    With a strong ICT background backed with revenue leakage prevention capacity, Abba-Kura is expected to oversee Customs operations at the service flagship command with highest volume of trade and revenue collection.

    Read also: Freight forwarders deplore port concession

    Abba-Kura joined the NCS in April 1989. He attended the University of Maiduguri where he bagged a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. He also holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Strategic Studies, Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo.

    He has attended several training programmes and courses in Nigeria and abroad including that of the Institute of Risk Management, London and Galilee International Management Institute in Israel, where he obtained a Diploma in National Security in 2013.

  • Smuggling has reduced at Seme, says Customs Chief

    smuggling has abated at Seme Border since the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) embarked on enlightenment on the 30 per cent tax holiday, Area Commander Garba Uba Mohammed has said.

    Mohammed said the enlightenment was based on the government’s offer of one year 30 per cent tax holiday for businessmen, especially those in the informal sector.

    The initiative, he explained, was helping many to embrace legitimate economic activities.

    He said the command was compiling the list of those who abandoned the illicit trade for legal business.

    According to him, the engagement with various stakeholders had led to the near-zero conflict between his officers and the stakeholders.

    “We met all the stakeholders. We told them of the government’s policy and got their buy-in and nobody is left in doubt as to what our duties are.

    “We also explained to them that there are other economic activities that they can embark on. We explained to them that export is free, no duty collected for locally produced goods.

    “We told them that if they do informal, semi-formal to formal business activities, the government will give them 30 per cent of the value of their product as incentives to get foreign exchange, to get employment and for them to remain in production instead of engaging in smuggling.

    “Those of them who can do excisable products here the Federal Government will give them tax holiday for one year. Goods produced locally to be consumed in Nigeria; the government collects 30 per cent duty.

    “So, Customs gives them tax holiday for one year to allow their company stand on their own; some of them having known this embarked on such economic ventures and it has help in reducing smuggling.

    “We have to embark on a study to get statistics for a reasonable period of time for the people that have engaged in such businesses after leaving smuggling.

    “It will help to get statistics and data that will help us to speak with some degree of accuracy that this is the result of our campaign and public enlightenment,” he added.

  • Haulage operators acquire holding bays

    Haulage operators under the auspices of Council of Maritime Transport Union and Association (COMTUA) have commenced move to acquire holding bays to ease gridlock along the ports corridors in Lagos.

    COMTUA has also reaffirmed its readiness to work with government agencies in decongesting the highways of articulated trucks leading to the seaports, even as it said it has already secured a parking lot at Ijora.

    The Coordinator of the group, Stephen Okafor, said the call up system introduced by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in line with the holding bays will address the lingering traffic along the access road.

    Okafor, who is also the Operations Manager, Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), noted that members of COMTUA have put in place measures whereby truck owners will pay a daily fee of N10,000 to the body, adding that the fee is considerable compared to the alleged N70,000 bribes paid to security agencies along the corridors.

    The coordinator added that truck owners under the group have complied with the call up directive by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and a 10-man committee has been set up to identify parks that can be registered for the project.

    He  said COMTUA has secured Koro part at Ijora with a capacity of 1000 trucks, adding that the group is all out to scout for more parks where truck wait until they are called up to lift or return consignments from the ports.

    Okafor averred that the committee will scout for more holding bays within the state to ameliorate issues bothering on extortion, harassment and delay in cargo clearance.

    He noted that COMTUA will take charge of the parks that are secured with a view to addressing the challenges on the road. “With one park at our disposal now, we can tell you that issues of traffic on the corridors are gradually easing off. By the time we get more of these parks then issue of traffic and extortions on the port access roads will be a thing of the past”, Okafor stated.

  • ‘NIMASA, NLNG rescued distressed vessel’

    The dust over the allegation of neglect and unresponsiveness levelled against the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) by the Nigerian Trawler Owners Association (NITOA) and the Nigeria Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association in the wake of a fire that gutted a trawler, MV ORC IV off Bonny Channel, last month, is yet to settle.

    Describing the allegations as “false”, NIMASA’s Head of Corporate Communications, Isichei Osamgbi, said  the agency, in collaboration with the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) saved the said vessel through its search and rescue operations.

    He said the fishing vessel in question did not sink and is currently at the ORC Jetty at Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, Lagos, where it was safely towed after rescue.

    “For the records, NIMASA Search and Rescue Control Room received a distress call at about 20:00hrs on 6th Feb 2019 that a Vessel MV ORC 4 (ORC IV) was on fire at Bonny Anchorage and that the crews were abandoning the vessel.

    “The agency’s Search and Rescue Station swung into action and relayed the emergency call to shipping within the area in line with its statutory mandate as enshrined in SS.22(1) and SS.22(4) of the NIMASA Act 2007 and S.2(1) of the Merchant Shipping Act 2007 on Maritime Safety,” Osamgbi said in a statement made available to The Nation.

    He explained that the agency sought collaboration with the NLNG, whose firefighting tug was closest to the scene to assist in bringing the situation under control alongside other neighbouring vessels who collaborated in the rescue exercise. The NLNG, he further said, dispatched its firefighting tug boat named CTOW ANN SOPHIE to the scene to extinguish the fire and safely evacuated the crew and the vessel safely towed to her owner’s jetty.

    The Head, Maritime Safety and Seafarers Standards Department of NIMASA, Sunday Umoren,  praised the support of Atlantic Shrimpers’ vessels, his team and NLNG for the successful operation in saving the fishing vessel.

    He further explained that there is a difference between emergency and salvage operations. Saving of lives, he said, is the mandatory action during an emergency and is treated with top priority, but saving an asset is salvage, which comes at a cost.

    According to Umoren, in such instances, usually, to save time, the salvor and the Master of the Vessel (to be salvaged) will agree for the operation to be under Lloyd’s Open Form (LOF), an international agreement which is a standard form contract for a proposed marine salvage operation which is aimed at eliminating pre-salvage negotiations deferring such to be decided by Arbitrators on completion of the salvage operation.

    Osamgbi further said the Group Managing Director of ORCiv Fishing and Food Processing Limited, Rahul Savara, owners of the vessel, had on February 11, sent a letter of appreciation to the NIMASA Director-General, Dr, Dakuku Peterside, for the intervention of the agency in the incident.

    It would be recalled that NITOA and the Nigeria Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association a fortnight ago, blamed the NLNG and NIMASA over failure to respond swiftly to distress call on the fire incident that gutted MV ORC IV.

  • ‘Five per cent duty payment not automatic for manufacturers’

    Give us an overview of the Customs Post Clearance Audit (PCA) Unit, Zone A  and how you achieved compliance in your task.

    We deal with consignments or declarations that have already been exited form the ports within the Lagos zone, that is, Zone A. So, in essence we do targeting, profiling and once we profile and discover infractions or discrepancies, we normally write letters to the importers and their clearing agents. Then, we give them two weeks to respond to the letter. After expiration of the two weeks’ notice we normally send them a reminder, which is normally within a week.

    Some, immediately they receive the first letter, will respond but most of them you have to send reminder letters before they respond. Some will not even respond until you block them from the system. Blocking them from the system is that you block them, using the Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) of the agent as well as his importer. So, with that they will be compelled to come and answer the queries of those declarations. Once their TIN numbers are blocked, they can’t lodge in new declarations. So, they definitely come forward and if they come forward, if it is an issue of Harmonised System (HS) code, we sit down with them, we show them based on their declarations in the system.

    Blocking them is a strategy to enforce compliance as it prevents the blocked company from doing any transaction until pending issues are resolved. What they have declared, the inspection act done by the releasing officer and further research done on the exporter forms our guide in taking decisions. So, once underpayment is established, we go ahead and give demand notice (DN) for the shortfall to be paid.

    There is this issue of improper address or people who have relocated after they made transactions. How do you track them?

    I remember forwarding a list of about 60 importers and clearing agents that their addresses were not correct and the only way they come to respond is by this blockage. There is no way you can get hold of them except you block them. Normally what they were supposed to do is that when they change addresses they should write to Customs officially that “we are moving from address A to address B”, which they don’t do. Now, most of them are complying with that. In fact, some of them, as they are coming forward to answer their queries, you will see copies of letters that they wrote for change of addresses.

    How do you resolve disputes in calculations between PCA and importers or agents?

    If you look at the World Customs Organisation (WCO) standard working procedure for post clearance audit, it gives the person being audited rights. He has rights and we respect their rights. We can say we are arguing HS code for a particular item, he will disagree. He can write to CGC complaining that PCA identified that he has been carrying his consignment on a particular HS code and PCA is insisting on a different HS code. HS Codes determine percentage of duties to be paid. Wherever the HS Code changes, duty to be paid, may likely change too. So, once he writes that letter to headquarters, it will go through the normal channel. CGC will minute to DCG Tariff and Trade and she will minute to the Controller Tariff, so Controller Tariff will sit down look at it and classify correctly.

    Sometimes it is sent back to us for our own input. Sometimes if people come here they will say no “we have been importing this particular item for a long time so it has to be on five per cent duty rate because we are manufacturers. But being a manufacturer doesn’t automatically make you to enjoy five per cent duty rate.  Your raw material is another man’s finished products and your finished product is another man’s raw material. That is how it moves.

    Do you trace declaration of several years back in the event that there could have been a mistake in the collection of duty or valuation?

    Yes, we do if there is a need for it. The issue is ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Sometimes it can be a genuine ignorance and sometimes it can be deliberate. As an officer you cannot know everything. Wherever you find yourself as an officer, who wants to perform, definitely you must develop yourself. You must optimally read and do researches on various items being imported and processed. For example if you did not read chemistry you may not work effectively on chemicals being imported at the beginning as a customs officer but if you decide to develop yourself, you can be as good as somebody who studied chemistry or even an expert. The knowledge acquired on the job over the years contributed to their expertise. It’s not possible to know everything at a go. Knowledge increases with time and customs operations cannot be an exception.

  • NLNG debunks owner’s claims over ship fire

    The Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) has debunked claims of neglect by the Nigerian Trawler Owners Association (NITOA) and the Nigeria Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association over the fire that gutted a trawler, MV ORC IV, off Bonny Channel.

    According to a statement by its Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Andy Odeh,  which described the allegations as false and misleading.

    “We are aware of claims made by the some persons with links to a trawler association regarding Nigeria LNG Limited’s response to a distress call by a trawler 45 Kilometres SW of Bonny Fairway Buoy. On receiving the distress call at around 21:07 hours on February 6, 2019, we responded by sending out a long range security boat to the location.

    “On getting there, the crew of the long range boat found other sister vessels engaged in rescuing the crew of the distressed trawler boat. The boat returned to base after confirming that the trawler boat crew had been rescued by sister vessels,” the statement read.

    The statement further explained that at 13:20 hours on February 7, following reports of a fishing boat on fire in the same location, the NLNG sent a tug boat with fire-fighting capabilities and two security boats. The tugboat, the statement explained, “put out the fire and the crew of the security boats doused small fires in the fish hold”.

    The statement added that the NLNG is a good corporate citizen and it continues to exhibit caring to people and the environment, because “caring is one of NLNG’s core values”.

    The NITOA and the Nigeria Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association last week blamed the NLNG and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for failure to respond swiftly to distress call on the fire that gutted MV ORC IV, maintaining that two seafarers were still missing from the incident.

  • Importers plan port boycott over proposed charge

    Importers and other port operators are still not comfortable with the plan of the Nigeria Shipper’s Council (NSC) to introduce registration fee.

    Though, NSC has offered a 50 per cent reduction in the proposed fee, the importers are threatening to take their businesses to neighbouring ports “where there are no such charges”.

    The importers, under the aegis of Importers Association of Nigeria (IMAN), are insisting that the port economic regulator should suspend any form of additional fee in cargo clearance.

    IMAN urged the NSC to address issues affecting stakeholders at the ports instead of planning to impose additional cost to doing business in the industry.

    IMAN Chief Operations Officer, Prosper Okolo, was emphatic that importers may be forced to stop cargo importation through Nigerian ports.

    “If every agency of government is collecting levy from the port, the shippers will no longer import cargoes into the country,” he warned, adding that IMAN’s top officials have equally engaged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the arbitrary charges on importers by government agencies and the shipping lines operating in the country.

    A breakdown of the proposed revised fee released by the NSC showed that shipping line agencies and terminal operators are to pay N50,000 per annum (reduced from the initial N100,000), while inland container depot/dry port operators will pay N25,000 instead of N50,000.

    Others are off-dock terminal operators, cargo consolidators and shipping agency (non-vessel operating agency) will pay N10,000, reduced from N20,000, while freight forwarders and clearing agents, haulage firms, stevedoring companies, cargo surveyors and shippers will pay N5,000 instead of the N10,000 initially imposed by the NSC at the beginning of the year.

  • Firm acquires two waste control boats

    African Circle Pollution Man-agement Limited (ACPML) has added two patrol boats — MV Etypou, MV Muzube 1 and MV Muzube 2 — to its fleet.

    The boats’acquisition is in accordance with the requirements of Maritime Pollution (MARPOL) 73/78, a key guideline of the global maritime watchdog, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Under the provisions of MARPOL 73/78, the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) is mandated by IMO to provide adequate facilities for waste generated in vessels calling in Nigerian ports.

    The boats, christened Aderinsola and Hadiza, are fitted with modern technological features to cope with their functions.

    Unveiling the boats at a brief ceremony at Tin Can Island Port (TCIP), Apapa, Lagos, NPA  Managing Director Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman commended ACPML management for its strides since signing the agreement with the Federal Government over two decades ago.

    Usman, represented by the NPA General Manager, Health Safety and Environment (HSE), Suleiman Abdulbaki, noted that ACPML has done well in the execution of the provisions of the agreement it signed with the government.

    Her words: “African Circle Pollution Management Limited has been in partnership with Nigerian Ports Authority for over two decades in the areas of pollution control monitoring, and management of ports reception facilities. ACPML operates in the most excellent way to the highest standard.”

    While unveiling the boats Bala- Usman commended the management of ACPML for the strides it has made since it signed the agreement with the Federal Government over two decades ago.

    Usman who was represented at the occasion by the NPA General Manager, Health Safety and Environment (HSE),  Suleiman Abdulbaki, noted that ACPML has done well in the execution of the provisions of the agreement it signed with the government.

    According to her, the acquisition of the boats will go a long way in enhancing the effective management of ship generated waste in accordance with the provisions in the Annexes of MARPOL 73/78 convention.

    Speaking on behalf of ACPML, its Regional Manager, East, Pastor Olajide Oluwayemi stated that the procurement of the boats was geared towards ensuring that the company surveillance operations in line with its mandate are not hindered in Nigeria waters.

    Oluwayemi stated that the decision to procure the boats was in furtherance of the company’s commitment to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of Ships (MARPOL 73/78) and in line with the provisions of port reception facilities for the NPA as contained in the agreement.

    ACPML had in 2018 procured no fewer than 16 new specialised trucks to evacuate waste generated in ships calling in the nation’s seaports. The procurement of the trucks was in addition to the ones it had earlier acquired in the discharge of its roles and responsibilities in Nigerian ports. The move was in line with its desire to fulfil its mandate as contained in the agreement it signed with the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).