The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Maritime

  • Maritime workers seek inclusion in NHF

    Maritime workers seek inclusion in NHF

    The Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) at the weekend urged the Federal Government to review the National Housing Fund policy to cover workers in private organisations.

    The Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority Branch of MWUN, Mr Dahiru Talle, said that workers in private organisation in the maritime sector were not contributing to the fund.

    He spoke at the Triennial Delegates’ Conference of Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporation (SSACTAC) in Abuja.

    ”The money of maritime workers in the private organisation is not being deducted.

    “This is not good because the workers will not benefit from the housing scheme,” he said.

    He noted, however, that workers in the public sector were contributing to the fund.

    Reacting, the President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Mr Bobboi Kaigama, urged the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) to ensure that workers in private organisations benefitted from the scheme.

    Kaigama said that NECA, TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to ensure that the three unions would be aware of all houses constructed and allocated under the scheme.

     

  • Maritime crime …Tale of an industry worth N3 trillion

    Maritime crime …Tale of an industry worth N3 trillion

    Nigeria, naval sources said at the weekend, is losing about N250 billion monthly to maritime crimes, such as piracy, bunkering, smuggling, poaching, oil theft, human trafficking and other transnational crimes. In a year, experts say N3 trillion is lost to economic sabotage. Assistant Editor (News) OLUKOREDE YISHAU probes how this huge cash is lost.

    Till this day, the village and the villagers are still counting their losses. For 48 hours, the flames refused to go away. Not far away from the scene in Bodo village, Rivers State, illegally-installed equipment that would allow huge amounts of oil to be siphoned overseas through large barges in the sea had leaked crude oil and was inflamed by yet-to-be-identified source of fire. 6,000 barrels of crude oil found their way into the creeks and waterways. Many people died.

    Industrial pipelines capable of transporting thousands of barrels of oil a day have been found in the swamps in the Niger Delta. With this, thousands upon thousands of crude oil barrels are stolen through the waterways. A Catholic priest, identified simply as Father Obi, in an interview with The Guardian of London, provided an insight into how this maritime crime works.

    Obi said: “From the moment I got to the scene (the next day) I was suspicious. The scene had been hurriedly deserted. Shell must have known what was going on. The military must have known. Everyone knew there was complicity. I am personally sure that Shell knew that its oil was being stolen. If the managers did not know, then those who they put in charge (of the operation) seemed to know. This (theft) could not have happened without the collusion of the authorities and the military.”

    He raised posers bothering on complicity: “Why was a massive barge able to hold 10,000 barrels of oil being loaded at 2am with crude? Why did another catch fire? Why were excavators there? Why were local observers arrested the next day, their cameras confiscated and memory cards destroyed? Were the thieves being protected by the military? Was the company paying workers to clean up oil spilled in the process of theft they themselves were engaged in? Did Shell know its oil was being stolen from under its nose?”

    Managing Director of Shell Mutiu Sunmonu, said: “Unknown persons continued to reconnect illegal bunkering hoses at Bodo West even as our pipeline team was removing crude theft points.”

    Shell spokesperson Philip Mshelbila said: “One has to understand there is this accusation that the oil industry employees are behind this, but there are thousands of people who have the skills who may have been working with the industry over the years. These people are outside and some of them may be for hire. There is a sophisticated organisation, clearly it is not just local. There has to be a wide network.” The Bodo incident is significant because it shows how maritime crime, especially oil theft, has reached an industrial scale, involving commodity traders, international criminals and a whole network of people.

    President Goodluck Jonathan said 300,000-400,000 barrels of oil per day is lost through maritime crime. This represents more than 10 per cent of the country’s production. The country and oil companies, according to the Presidency, lose close to N250 million a month to this crime. This amount is just 10 per cent of what is lost to all the facets of maritime crime.

    Presidential aide Ken Saro-Wiwa jnr said: “The figures are huge. (Oil theft) could destabilise Nigeria. The business is worth billions of dollars a year. It is on an industrial scale, and involves commodity traders, international (criminals) and a whole network of people. There are some allegations that the oil companies themselves are implicated.”

    Mshelbila added: “We (Shell) are losing 40-60,000 barrels of oil a day. This is just what we know is stolen from the trunk lines. We have to shut down lines, so, taken together it’s probably 300,000-400,000 barrels a day. We are seeing more illegal connections, more frequent shutdowns than one year ago.”

    A report by Chatham House indicates that oil is being stolen not just from pipelines but from tank farms, export terminals, refinery storage tanks, jetties, ports, pipelines, and wellheads.

    The report said: “Officials and private actors disguise theft through manipulation of meters and shipping documents. Proceeds are laundered through world financial centres and used to buy assets in and outside Nigeria, polluting markets and financial institutions overseas, and creating reputational, political and legal hazards.”

    The report established that much of the stolen oil is exported to foreign refineries or storage facilities, in the U.S., Brazil, China, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Balkans. The proceeds, said the report, are laundered through banks in Dubai, Indonesia, India, Singapore, the US, the UK, and Switzerland.

     

    Not about oil theft alone

     

    The maritime crime industry is not limited to oil theft. Smuggling, piracy and bunkering are top on the list of the crimes described by a senior naval officer, Air Vice-Marshal Eko Osim, as economic sabotage perpetrated through the water. Air Vice-Marshal Osim, at the weekend, said the country loses N250 billion monthly to maritime crime. This comes to N3 trillion annually, far in excess of what the country spends on education and health, which are in dire strait.

    Michael Frodl, who runs the US-based C-Level maritime risks consultancy, said: “In 10 days, a Nigerian pirate doing siphoning beyond the territorial waters of Nigeria can make more money than Somalian pirates can make in 10 months of holding hostages.”

    In recent years, the country’s maritime environment has been increasingly threatened transnational crimes, which have been encouraged by insufficient patrol ship to fight maritime crime, illegal ship to ship transfer, insufficient platforms and shortfall in naval manpower. Worse still, there is lack of information gathering and sharing in the fight against maritime crime between the country’s security agencies. All these challenges have helped maritime criminals to devise various means to beat the law.

    The U.S. and other western countries have helped the Navy with training and equipment, but the results are yet to be seen.

    The seriousness of the situation becomes more glaring when statistics on it are considered. In 2010, there were at least 45 cases of sea piracy; 2011 witnessed 64 cases. The International Maritime Bureau, a specialised division of the International Chamber of Commerce, reports that 58 cases last year. As at last month, no fewer than 32 vessels had been attacked. These figures, however, do not cover unreported cases.

    The President of the Nigerian Trawlers Association, Mr. Joseph Overo, said the industrial fishing sub-sector in the country has lost over N119 billion in the last eight years in fishing revenue to maritime crime.

    Statistics released by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the country’s apex maritime regulatory agency, also shows that between February 2010 and February 2011 the country lost over N445 million to the activities of sea robbers.

    The sophistication of maritime crime in the country has seen most attacks in the West African sub-region taking place in the Niger Delta, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). A report shows that “pirate attacks off Nigeria’s coast have jumped by a third this year as ships passing through West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, a major commodities route, have increasingly come under threat from gangs wanting to snatch cargoes and crews.”

    Significantly, pirates in the Niger Delta steal one commodity majorly: oil.

    Last year, the increase in pirate attacks in West Africa made the London-based Lloyd’s Market Association, an umbrella group of maritime insurers, to list Nigeria and nearby waters as risky. The risky status has jacked up insurance costs and the result was a significant decrease in maritime traffic in the region. The decrease, says UNODC, affected the livelihoods of the country’s citizens, by increasing the cost of imports and decreasing the competitiveness of exports.

    The porous nature of the maritime environment has made Shell plan to sell off four of its onshore oil blocks, which have witnessed constant theft. Other oil majors too have either sold some troubled oil blocks or are in the process of selling them.

    Interestingly, this theft has encouraged shutting down of pipelines, which, in turn, has made the country produce about 400,000 barrels a day below its capacity of 2.5 million barrels a day, according to The Economist.

    The Nuhu Ridabu Presidential Panel Report shows that over the last decade thieves had stolen between 6 per cent and 30 per cent of the country’s oil production. This tallies with the position canvassed by Martin Murphy, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States, a policy think tank, in his article “Petro-Piracy: Oil and Troubled Waters,” published in Orbis for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He said: “Illegal bunkering (filling ships with fuel) is enormously profitable” in Nigeria, adding: “The scale of losses is staggering—more than $100 billion worth of oil has gone missing since 1960.”

     

    Figures from the oil majors

     

    Shell, in a document, paints a scary picture of maritime crime as it concerns their operations. The document says: “The unrest has turned into a worrying criminal movement, which feeds on massive thefts of crude oil. Heavily armed and well-organised groups attack oil and gas facilities in the delta, shut down operations, kidnap staff and sabotage pipelines.

    “Barges take stolen oil to tankers waiting offshore for export. There is also a massive illegal refining business based on stolen crude oil. All these have reduced the amount of oil SPDC is producing, created environmental and social problems from oil spills and reduced government revenue that could be used to develop infrastructure and services.”

    The oil major said accurately determining the volume of oil lost to the oil thieves would be an exercise in futility because of the country’s challenges with data collection.

    It said: “How much oil is stolen is difficult to estimate and varies according to the source. In 2010/2011, there were 237 reported incidents of crude oil theft from SPDC facilities that involved vandalism, spills, fire or arrests. There were 187 in 2009/2010.

    “The effects of this industrial scale theft are devastating for both the people and the environment. This is evident from the thick smoke from illegal refineries that line the shore. The land, the shorelines and the water are heavily polluted with oil as a result of these activities. The scale of these operations is not hidden. The perpetrators of these crimes have set up barge building yards and storage depots for the stolen crude.This is not petty theft undertaken by desperate individuals struggling to make a living. These are well-funded crimes that may be connected with an international syndicate.”

    For the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), it estimates that it loses an average of one million barrels of crude oil to theft monthly. The Managing Director of NAOC, Ciro Antonio Pagano, told the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) that this translates to a loss of N16 billion monthly.

     

    Bleeding the economy

     

    For the Director-General of NIMASA, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi, what is obtained in the Nigerian waters is sea robbery not piracy in the true sense of the word.

    He said: “What has come to be known as Nigeria piracy is the hijacking of ships by hoodlums who attack their targets, mainly tanker vessels with force, divert the vessel to a hidden place in the sea, siphon its products into their waiting vessel and then let off the hijacked vessel.”

    He said the criminals have extended their tentacles to the waters of Benin, Togo and Liberia, arguing that they started operating in the Niger Delta area, Lagos and Cameroun waters, making the IMB to rate Nigeria as second most dangerous in the world, after the failed state of Somalia. And the economy is bleeding for this.

    The bleeding also extends to the ordinary consumers. Maritime crime, which has engendered insurance surcharge on Nigeria-bound cargo, has translated to high cost of goods to final consumers. Maritime experts also believe that another downside of this economic sabotage is that it has not encouraged Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country’s maritime sector. But, what has made it tick?

     

    What aids maritime

    crime/way out

     

    Marginalisation of oil-bearing communities and corruption are two factors that have been identified as aiding maritime crime.

    Dr. Christian Bueger, a Cardiff University researcher and editor of Piracy-Studies.org, an online research portal, in an interview with Africa Renewal, said: “Piracy tends to be conducted or supported by marginalised communities that have not been participating in economic development.”

    Chatham House, a British research group, reported in September that “corruption and fraud are rampant in the country’s oil sector. Lines between legal and illegal supplies of Nigerian oil can be blurry.”

    Also, maritime crime is aided by the fact that affected countries hardly share information on what’s happening on their coastlines. Little, said experts, is also done in the area of joint training activities to develop procedures and learn how to use technology. In a country like Nigeria, experts say there are no strong legislations to prosecute criminals, while money for capacity building is meager compared to the challenge at hand.

    The country is yet to act on the recommendation of the UN Security Council urging a reinforcement of domestic legislation and development of a comprehensive regional counter-piracy framework.

    The maritime component of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS treaty of 1993 intended to harmonise all maritime issues across the region is yet to have the desired effect.

    Not a few are of the opinion that the Somalia approach, which saw the UN allowing international collaboration, may be inevitable to stop the economic sabotage in Nigeria

    The Chairman of Sea and Cargo Logistics Limited, Mr. Raphael Christopher, believes foreign ships should be checked if maritime crime is to be curbed. He said many foreign ships on the country’s territorial waters engage in illegal businesses, adding that the Federal Government loses several hundreds of millions of dollars to these illegalities on the country’s waters.

    Experts also believe that the country must quickly domesticate international laws, guidelines, and conventions. A bill to that effect is before the National Assembly. A Lagos-based lawyer and consultant to the government on the bill, Mr. Mike Igbokwe (SAN), said the law would help Nigeria to domesticate all international conventions and clip the wings of maritime criminals.

    He said: “There has been a report of hijacking of vessels, cargo theft with violence on crews by robbers within the Nigerian territorial waters and off Nigerian waters. Some of the characteristics of these actions have been theft of crude oil. Recently, 23 sailors in Cyprus flagged ship were hijacked 63 nautical miles off Cotonou.

    “Nigeria is now being categorised the same as Somalia as a result of these incidents. But the incident in Nigeria, even in the Gulf of Guinea, is not as high as that of Somalia where vessels are being hijacked for ransom. The Nigerian maritime stakeholders are worried at the increasing trend, as businesses are being interrupted, especially fishing trawlers.”

    The treaties to be domesticated include the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea relating to piracy and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Act against Safety of Maritime Navigation of 1988.

  • Maritime security: Stakeholders lament challenges, proffer solutions

    Stakeholders in the nation’s maritime sector have lamented the various challenges bedevilling the sector, saying all hands must be on deck to salvage the situation for the good of the country.

    Speaking recently at a public forum tagged: ‘Preventing Terrorism and Insurgency in Nigeria’s Maritime Domain’ organised by the Maritime Correspondents’ Organisation of Nigeria (MARCON), Leke Oyewole, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Maritime Affairs, blamed companies operating in the nation’s waters as well as weak maritime laws operational in the country as being the major causes of the violence in the sector.

    While the Presidency said the desire by oil companies, fishing trawlers and other vessel operators to cut corners and engage in economic malpractices is responsible for the worsening state of insecurity in Nigeria’s maritime domain, other stakeholders and experts in the sector said tackling of corruption, fostering citizen-government cooperation, adequate funding of security agencies, among other measures, would address insecurity in the nation’s maritime sector.

    According to the SSA to the President, oil companies operating in the country often pollute the waters and neglect their host communities. To express their dissatisfaction, Oyewole said, youths in the host communities attack the companies and their infrastructure.

    While fishing trawlers carry cash made from illegal trade on the high sea, the presidential aide alleged that tanker vessel operators engage in illegal oil trade, thereby drawing attacks from pirates.

    Dr. Kingsley Ezeatakwulu-Osakwe, President of Crisis Control Foundation, stressed that negligence in the nation’s security framework and the unwillingness of the people to cooperate with government, among others, was responsible for the high level of insecurity in the country and the maritime sector in particular.

    “The citizens are so much exploited and their rights denied that they become afraid of government security agencies. The increasing insecurity in Nigeria is self-imposed and inherited by the present administration,” he said.

    Ezeatakwulu-Osakwe further blamed the current methodology employed by government in tackling the menace describing it as completely inadequate as certain vital ingredients are still not added to the operational system of the entire security structure.

    He scored the judiciary low on performance, insisting that it had failed to protect the citizens from oppression and injustice, adding that lack of justice in the country had encouraged the oppressed to resort to self-help and violence.

    As part of the way forward, the Presidential Assistant assured that government was working to create a synergy among agencies in the sector and correct administrative lapses identified with a view to tackling insecurity in the nation’s waters.

    He pledged tough measures by government in fighting piracy, terrorism and other acts of violence in the maritime sector, including seizure of vessels involved in illegal acts and making of adequate laws. He revealed that a bill to strengthen the fight against piracy and other illegal acts in the nation’s waters sponsored by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) was currently before the National Assembly.

    Dr. Boniface Aniebonam and Eugene Nweke of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) urged action on the different laws and policy decisions taken to strengthen the nation’s maritime sector.

    Mallam Isah Suwade, who represented the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) at the seminar, stressed that his organisation had continued to develop adequate maritime infrastructure and sponsor manpower development as a way of tackling insecurity in the maritime sector.

    He, however, regretted that inter-agency decisions reached in the past were not properly implemented.

  • Apapa Customs rakes in N121b

     

    The Apapa Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service(NCS) boosted the government’s coffer with N121 billion in the first six months of the year.

    The Public Relations Officer, Apapa Area Command, Mr Emmanuel Ekpa, in the command’s half-year performance report, said the amount collected represented only 52 per cent of the total revenue targeted to be generated within the first half of the year.

    Ekpa said: “The command collected over N121 billion as revenue generated into the federation and non-federation accounts between January and June 2013. The amount collected is about 52 per cent of the N234 billion aspired to be collected in the first six months of the year going by the monthly revenue target of N39 billion.”

    A breakdown of the revenue figure shows that the Command collected N20.8 billion in January; N19.8 billion in February; N18.6 billion in March. However, in the month of April, over N20 billion was collected as against N19.7 billion raked in the same period last year. The performance showed an increase in the previous year’s record.

    The Command collected N19.8 billion in May as against N24.6 billion in May 2012. For the month of June, the command collected a total of N21 billion as against the N36.7billion in June of 2012.

    Ekpa said that the inability of the Command to meet its half year target was due to the continuous decline in the volume of importation into the country.

  • NIMASA: Cabotage’ll create jobs

    NIMASA: Cabotage’ll create jobs

    The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, has said the agency was committed to providing employment for Nigerians through the Cabotage Law.

    Speaking with The Nation, the NIMASA boss said the agency’s investment in seafarers’training and facilitation of the establishment of institutes of maritime studies in four universities were indications of its commitment to building capacity for the industry.

    Akpobolokemi appealed to stakeholders to encourage youths to seek careers at sea.

    He said: “The overwhelming interest showed by youths in seafaring calls for support from stakeholders in the maritime sector to assist in capacity development, especially in onboard training.

    “We, at NIMASA, have been placing cadets’ onboard Cabotage vessels as part of mandatory requirements for obtaining their Competency Certificates.”

    He described the submission of Nigeria’s instrument of ratification of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as an indication to his agency’s commitment to the welfare of seafarers.

     

  • Jonathan at the gulf of Guinea summit on maritime

    Jonathan at the gulf of Guinea summit on maritime

  • Skye Bank offers $500m loan to maritime sector

    Skye Bank Plc has granted facilities amounting to $500 million to operators in the maritime industry in recent times and has reaffirmed its commitment into funding projects in the subsector.

    The bank’s General Manager, Corporate Banking (Maritime and Aviation sector), Mr. Segun Opeke, explained that the loan was part of its commitment to the development of the maritime industry in the country.

    He said the amount represents money provided to indigenous ship owners and other stakeholders for the acquisition of ships and other critical work tools needed to strengthen operation o the sector.

    Speaking at a forum of maritime stakeholders, Opeke said the bank was prepared to expand its credit lines to the operators to further develop the industry.

    According to him, the bank was responsible for the provision of credit facilities to indigenous ship owners for the acquisition of an estimated 50 per cent of the entire fleet in the country.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Maritime expo coming

    A former President, Nigerian Trawlers Owners Association of Nigeria (NITOA), Mrs Margaret Onyema-Orakwusi, has said there is need for the government to open up the sector.

    Briefing reporters in Lagos on the forthcoming international maritime conference and exhibition in Nigeria, Mrs Onyema-Orakwusi, said the group is optimistic that the industry would experience significant growth in the year.

    NIMAREX, she said, is not resting on its oars as they have a public-private partnership in place to open up the sector and spearhead a silent revolution, which will yield fruits in the year.

    She also said the Presidential Committee set up last year by President Goodluck Jonathan to chart a roadmap for the industry had concluded its assignment. adding that the Committee’s recommendations would be implemented by the President soon.

    This year’s event is entitled: Nigerian maritime: Invest now.

     

  • Maritime industry needs modern legal framework

    Maritime industry needs modern legal framework

    Hassan Bello was the Secretary to the Council and Legal Adviser, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) before his appointment as Acting Executive Secretary. In this interview with Legal Editor JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU, he speaks on his plans for the NSC, multi-modal transport,port reforms and the dry ports, known as the ICDs.

    What are your programmes and plans for the year?

    Well, my programmes are in tandem with the programmes of the Federal Government and, indeed, the Federal Ministry of Transport. For us, 2013 is the year of consolidation of the maritime industry.

    What do you mean by consolidation of the industry?

    What I mean by consolidation is that we have had so many things on the drawing board, but this year, we will see the actualisation or realisation of so many far-reaching policies of the Federal Government, from revolutionising transportation, to allying the maritime industry to the economic aspirations of the Federal Government . We shall continue the ongoing port reforms, aligning the transport industry with the world economy.

    You have always maintained that multi-modal transportation is the key to unlock the treasures in our maritime industry. How far has this happened in the sector?

    We are going there now. We have seen the reactivation of the rail transport, the importance of rail transportation in global economy cannot be over-emphasised, because everybody appreciates the role of rail transport in the economy. So, the resuscitation of the rail transport system is extremely important for the economy and is a landmark development, because this is the beginning of the emergence of many other modes of transport. Multi-modalism is the reliance of many modes of transport, from water transport to Inland Water Ways. We also have the roads, the air and the rail. However, what is important is not so much multi-modalism as in the intermodalism because there must be some connectivity. There must be some interface between these modes of transport so that we have a seamless transport system. Goods transported by sea are shipped to the owner of the cargo through rail transport, road transport and so on. The co-ordination of these modes of transport is also very important. So, all these things have been done in the past two years. What the Federal Government is doing is consolidating and I am sure that 2013 will be a good one for the maritime industry.

    What is your appraisal of the role of the National Assembly in response to law making in the maritime sector?

    The National Assembly as constituted is very active in this respect. They are conscious of their roles, the Senate Committee on marine transport, the House of Representatives Committee on Marine transport have diligently worked with us closely and you need to see the quality of people and presentation that are made in those committees.

    You would recall that during the last maritime seminar for judges, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, suggested a committee for Law reforms generally.

    So, what have you done along that line?

    Yes, we have been talking with the Nigerian Maritime Lawyers Association, with the House Committee on Marine transport and, very soon, we will set up a committee to look at all the laws, so that obsolete laws in the sector which hinder speedy economic development could be reformed. Such reforms would not only trigger off rapid socio-economic development, they will most importantly, assist us in the domestication of international conventions that are appropriate and relevant to the development of maritime law. Because for the maritime industry to thrive, it needs appropriate modern legal frameworks.

    Is the committee members going to examine maritime law alone? Or are they going to look at other archaic laws in our statute book?

    It will be a holistic approach and more practical. For instance, we cannot domesticate a convention if it does not have any meaning. We cannot promulgate laws that do not translate into economic advancement of our people. Laws must be relevant; most importantly, they must guarantee the economic advancement of our people.

    We have to have laws that will boost economic activities, facilitate the integration of Nigeria into world economy and we must have laws that are meaningful, and applicable to our peculiar situation.

    What is the role of the Nigerian Law Reform Commission in this?

    There are so many agents of change of which the Nigerian law Reform Commission is one of them. The law Reform Commission is an omnibus commission, it has been very active if you have been following their activities, what we will do is to liase with them, because they may have their specialties such as criminal laws, constitutional laws e.t.c but admiralty law is a specialised aspect of the law which is also intricate. So, that committee of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Nigerian Maritime Lawyers Association and the National Assembly Committee on Marine Transport would, at one point or the other, rely on the Nigerian Law Reform Commission to effectively discharge their mandate.

    What is your appraisal of the Dry ports, known as ICDs.

    They are very strategic infrastructure, the dry ports are supposed to solve the lingering crises of ports congestion. They are long term solution to ports congestion because cut off the dwell time of cargo at the sea ports. The dry ports are also ports; the only thing is that you don’t see water. Otherwise they are supposed to be designated legally as the ports of destination and origin and that is being done right now. The moment we have such designations and such regulations branding them as ports of destination or origin as the case may be, then they will come to the fire. The concept of the dry ports is also a modern concept because it supports the door to door delivery of cargo. It is also one of the ingredients of the modern carriage conventions, the United Nations carriage of goods wholly or partly by sea, otherwise known as the Rotterdam Rules. Nigeria has not only done supporting legislations, but is also providing the real infrastructure to support modern transport system and the potential for dry port are so enormous that when they come to fruition which we hope will be very soon, it will be so visible and we have to look at their employment content. They will employ so many people.

    Is that all the dry ports can do?

    The most underlying use of the dry ports is their export potential, they should be a place for consolidation of cargo, for group page of cargo and for export of cargo. A place for it is a place for evacuation of all our exports, not only imports if they are well managed.

    Who is responsible for their management?

    The concessionaries carry enormous responsibilities here because it was done on a PPP basis. Hitherto, they have been carried along, however, I think their problems are financial problems and now, it is time for the concessionaries to be alive to their responsibilities. The Shippers council will also be alive to its own responsibilities, because we can’t have white elephant projects. These dry ports are very important and we must work together to see that they become operational.

    We have read of port reforms and efforts to ensure 24-hour operation of the ports. What is the role of the NSC in these reforms.

    Yes, many things are happening along that line. That is why I said 2013 is the year of consideration. It is the year of actualisation, 24-hour ports operation would bring a lot of growth to the economy. Apart from speedy cargo clearance, because it will bring the ports alive within these 24 hours, the Customs playing their role 24 hours, the clearing system being electronic. Even the traffic in the ports and ports areas would be affected. The single window system, a lot of responsibility for freight forwarders and the NSC in particular, the Shippers Council has always advocated this, because if we have more hours in operation, you have quick clearance of cargo. You won’t have much port congestions. You will have shorter dwell time for cargo, turnaround time for ships and our port will become more competitive because you cannot decree a port to be (a hub of ) a port of priority by importers. It is a function of competition and operations, if we have 24 hours clearing operations, then that will make our ports have the potential of making the best in the whole west African sub-region.

    A 24-hour port operations is on the way. It is workable. It is doable and I am sure that if everyone is alive to his responsibilities, this will be realised very soon.

    To what use have you put the benefits of the 2012 maritime seminar for judges.

    The Maritime Seminar for Judges in 2011 was a watershed in the sense that the seminar is moving towards the economic aspect of the maritime industry.

    What do mean by this?

    Yes, we brought in big time shippers, such as Alhaji Aliko Dangote. We brought in big time maritime lawyers on the issue of ship arrest. We had ship owners who came and talked about the danger of frivolous arrest of ships. We had judges and so on.

    But we have the committee for maritime seminar for Judges, which over sees the realisation of the communiqué, so that the seminar is not just a talk shop, but remains a policy driving seminar and right now, it is working to see that the communiqué is realised as soon as its is possible.

     

  • Foreigners rule the maritime world

    Foreigners rule the maritime world

    The maritime sub-sector is experiencing capital flight because of foreign control. For the sector to impact on the economy, there must be effective implementation of the Cabotage Law, which gives local operators a leverage. TAIWO DISU reports.

     

    •Cabotage Act fails to save local operators 

    The maritime sector is very strategic to the development of any economy, especially Nigeria, which derives over 90 per cent of its revenue from crude oil.

    Besides, maritime, which is the second largest revenue earner for Nigeria, has the capacity to provide over five million indirect and direct jobs.

    At a Presidential retreat on “Harnessing the potential of Nigeria’s maritime sector for sustainable economic development”, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Minister of Finance/Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said Nigeria loses more than N2 trillion yearly to capital flight because of Nigerians’ inability to fully participate in the industry.

    The poor participation of indigenous operators in the maritime, oil and gas industries led to the enactment of the Cabotage Act under the auspices of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for the maritime sector; the Nigerian Content Act for the oil and gas industry and supervised by Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB ).

    Stakeholders in the industry are wondering why the Jones Act has been used successfully in the United States to develop and empower American marine business and technology, while the Nigeria Cabotage Act remains largely under-utilised seven years into its existence? Why has the Local Content Policy been used successfully in Brazil and Malaysia, while the Nigerian Content Policy is yet to meet set targets?

    Experts say there may be several answers to these questions, but the undeniable fact is that in the countries where successes have been achieved, the common thread that runs through them is the insistence on the implementation of the laws and policies by their governments.

    Nigeria has a coastline stretching about 870 kilometres, 3,000 kilometres of inland waterways, and 913, 075 square kilometres in land mass. Despite these enormous coastline resources, foreigners dominate the Nigerian coastal and inland shipping marine sector from reports and available data.

    N100 billion lost in freight forwarding yearly

    It is estimated that Nigeria loses about N100 billion annually to foreign operators in the freight forwarding business.

    Nigerian freight forwarders are consigned merely to clearing and forwarding businesses at the ports; foreigners are in absolute control of the oil and gas component of the business where the potentials lie.

    National President, Association of Nigerian Custom Licensed Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu, said most Nigerian operators limit themselves to the clearing and forwarding and are, therefore, edged out on the bigger picture. He said Nigerian operators lack the technical knowledge of the business, that is why foreigners dominate freight forwarding.

    According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical bulletin, about 80 per cent of goods consumed in the country are imported, thus confirming the size of the freight forwarding business in Nigeria.

    An international freight forwarder, who does not want his name in print, said freight forwarding is done over the Internet and phones. “A typical freight forwarder will spend most of the day at a desk in front of a computer, but I really have to bewail the slow pace at which indigenous practitioners are catching up with the modern technology in the freight forwarding industry”, he explained.

    He said there is need for the government to control foreigners’ involvement in the freight forwarding business in line with its local content policy.

     

    Seafarers not in the mainstream of Cabotage law

    Nigeria is losing over N284.5billion to the non-employment of indigenous seafarers following the dominance of the local shipping industry by foreign shipping firms and their crewmen. Recent study indicates that there are about 120,000 seafaring jobs in the shipping industry in Nigeria, while fewer than 800 seafarers are Nigerians.

    Stakeholders in the industry pointed out that if after 52 years of independence, foreigners still dominate more than 85 per cent of maritime work force in Nigeria in spite of an Act of Parliament enacted to restrict the trade and employment 100 per cent to Nigerians, it means there is a failure on the part of government.

    Recently, the spokesman of the maritime workers, Mr Adeola Lawal, said all areas of our maritime life are dominated by foreigners at the expense of Nigerian seamen, which is actually killing the Nigerian economy. “Nigerian seamen roam the streets while other nationals occupy our positions,” he explained.

    However, it is said the indigenous seafarers lack the required expertise and experience to work on specialised vessels, and the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa Ibom state, which graduates a fairly large number of cadets who are supposed to be employed in the maritime industry, is perceived as providing substandard training. Also, Nigeria does not have a national carrier for the cadets to get sea experience.

    The implication of all these is that Nigeria’s seafarers who are trained locally, will find it difficult to secure jobs on board international vessels. Unfortunately, these men and women with paramilitary training roaming the streets, become easy recruits for piracy.

    It is on record that Singapore and Philippines that are not blessed with oil and gas depend on their maritime industry and are the highest suppliers of seafarers worldwide. In the process, they rake in millions of dollars as remittances into their economies.

     

    Maritime Academy

    The neglect and misplaced priority in maritime education have also caused capital flight in the industry. This is as a result of those who leave Nigeria to Ghana, Malaysia, Egypt, South Africa, Norway, and the United Kingdom and for training and certification so that they could avail themselves of the opportunity of doing their practicals in an ocean going vessel, and in turn, obtain certificates that will enable them to get jobs locally and internationally.

    At present, the only maritime institution recognised by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in Nigeria is MAN. After 33 years of its existence, the institution does not have a training vessel for its cadets.

    However, poor funding has helped to retard the capacity of the institution to produce the required manpower with the requisite skills to take over the sector dominated by foreigners.

    Dr Olaniyi Oyenekan, a master mariner, said it is surprising that NIMASA, which has a duty to give the academy at least five per cent of their statutory annual collection as support, some years ago, evolved a programme, the Nigeria Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), under which 25 seafarers from each state of the federation are to be trained overseas.

    The state governments are to bear 60 per cent of the cost of the training, while the maritime agency will take up the balance.

    However, some of the state governments had said the programme is expensive, and that the $25,000 per annum required for one seafarer, as a nautical scientist, ship master or marine engineer, is too high for them.

    NIMASA is partnering some universities in Nigeria on maritime education.

    Stakeholders in the industry said the questions that should be addressed are: how much does a training ship cost that the Federal Government has not been able to acquire it over the years? Why is NIMASA not placing priority on MAN by evolving competing programmes and partnering other institutions?

    Oyenekan said corruption, neglect and misplaced priorities are the immediate causes associated with maritime education in Nigeria.

    A recent international study by the Baltic International Maritime Council (BIMCO) and International Shipping Federation (ISF) highlighted a forecast shortage of about 27,000 officers worldwide in the maritime sector by 2015, and projected a shortfall of up to 83,000 officers in less than three years.

    Experts in the industry believe that now is the time for the government not only to address the problem of capital flight in the sector, but to also take advantage of employment opportunities for the seamen locally and internationally.

     

    Shipping in Nigeria

    There is serious mismatch between domestic and foreign input in the maritime sector. These problems created the incentives for capital to flee whether or not stringent measures are put in place to control capital flight.

    According to the indigenous Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Nigeria loses over N2 trillion annually in capital flight to foreign countries that owns vessels used for lifting about 150 million tons of cargoes, including oil products from this country as no Nigerian ship plys international routes

    Data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) made on tonnage shows that among the 13 member-countries of OPEC, which have a total of 134 tankers, Nigeria has only two tankers, which are merely used for storage rather than lifting crude oil. The records further show that out of a total of 24 million deadweight of crude per day, Nigeria lifts less than 500 deadweight.

    Executive Vice-Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer, Sifax Group, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, said during a seminar in Ogbomoso, Oyo state that over 90 per cent of income in the shipping sector is earned by foreign shipping companies alone.

    general secretary, ISAN, Capt. Niyi Labinjo, said Nigeria is also losing revenue through shipping ancillary services, especially the financial sector, because if the indigenous ships are working, they will be insured. Since this is not the case, Nigeria is losing about N 16.5 billion.

    Chairman of ISAN Chief Isaac Jolapamo said: “It is disheartening to note that Nigeria has failed to take advantage of the vast potential in the industry to get our youths employed. Nobody can solve our problems better than ourselves”, noting that the implementation is what is missing in NIMASA and NCDMB.

    Afolabi noted that Nigeria’s experience with Cabotage law regime has exposed and underlined one basic fact. It is not just in making the law, enforcing the law is also critical, he stated.

     

    Fishing business

    The incursion of foreign trawlers in the fishery segment of the maritime industry is also making Nigeria to lose about N300billion as a result of inadequate protection of our waters. Instead, we now depend on importation. Right now, Nigeria imports between 700,000 and 900, 000 metric tons of fish yearly to partially meet a shortfall of about 1,800,000 metric tons.

    Stakeholders say the fishing industry is at the brink of collapse, owing to the dangers of pirates and foreign trawlers. With huge maritime potential of a coastline measuring about 853 kilometres, Nigeria should be self-sufficient in fish production and able to export aquatic foods.

    Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said the security threats in the Gulf of Guinea of which Nigeria is a major stakeholder had steadily risen from 45 per cent in 2010 to 64 per cent in 2012 threatening Nigeria’s more than 600 million potential in fishing business. He added that the development has created major economic problems for the country and should be urgently addressed.

    Recently, because of the incessant attacks on fishing crews, the Nigerian Trawler Owners Association (NTOA) called its fleet of over 200 trawlers and 20, 000 workers back to the shore, leading to a shortfall in fish supply.

    According to NTOA, foreign trawlers from European and Asian countries come to the nation’s coastal areas to raid tonnes of fish, they come with better industrial trawlers that can stay at sea for weeks and even months, equipped with ice boxes.

    The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said piracy figures and attacks worldwide continue to rise, and cases of death are always recorded, stating that this is a major challenge to the world.

     

    Expert advice

    Adenekan said the developed countries make the best use of the sea because 90 per cent of world trade is done on sea. Today, over 75 per cent of shipping business he whole of West Africa is, done in Nigeria alone.

    He, however, advised that for the industry to become the maritime hub of west and central Africa and further check the incidence of capital flight, the government through its agencies and departments must start to implement its policies/laws, assess progress, review challenges, chart a realistic way forward and where necessary, reward/punish operators and set timelines for the attainment of goals.