The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ports

  • Govt urged to invest in ports

    How can Nigeria become a hub of maritime operations in West and Central Africa? It is by the Federal Government backing the initiative of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to develop new port facilities to compete with others in the sub-regions, say importers’ clearing agents.

    At a forum in Lagos, their spoke-person and Bolas Motors’ Managing Director Sesan Abolarinwa said it was imperative for the government to promote the maritime industry to benefit from the increasing cargo traffic across the globe.

    New facilities, Abolarinwa said, should be designed by the Ministry of Transport to meet the logistics needs of the industry while anticipating the need for future development.

    He called on the government to help in funding maritime researches, saying the sector lacked in-depth investigation due to poor funding.

    “The maritime industry has experienced an appreciable development in recent years. That development is set to stay.World trade continues to shift global markets and production lines make new demands on transport systems and on ports in particular.

    “Ports serve the national interest, supporting the competitiveness of national and regional economies. It is in the nation’s interest that our ports remain able to handle cargo trade and its potential development efficiently and sustainably.”

    The maritime industry, Abola-rinwa said, was in dire need of a number of reforms.

    “New port facilities would help to bring the industry to international standards. The importers lamented that previous administrations, like most practitioners in the maritime industry, did not live by the rules guiding the profession, which they said has resulted in a number of problems in the sector.

    “The maritime industry requires reforms; reform by way of standardising, educating, informing, sanitising the practice and making it global because the mere mention of the words import and export trade means we are not doing it locally but across borders. Therefore, there are set rules, information and knowledge that operators must possess,” he said.

    The Chairman, Tokunbo vehicle importers, Mr Samson Adebari said the maritime industry has project for rapid and sustainable growth.

    “Based on this development and the strategic position Nigeria occupy in the industry and the sub-region, for the development of human capital for an enhanced economy, it is expected of the government to train our youths to develop interest in maritime education,”Adebar said.

  • We’ll free ports of gridlock, says boss

    We’ll free ports of gridlock, says boss

    •Authority to partner The Nation on reforms

    Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) Managing Director Ms Hadiza Balla Usman has emphasised her team’s determination to ensure that the ports are run in line with international best practices by focusing on the perennial gridlock, especially in Apapa, caused by poor access roads.

    She said the truck holding bay opposite Tin-Can Island Port, Lagos would be made functional for the harbour to become leader in Africa.

    Ms Usman spoke when the Chairman, Editorial Board of The Nation, Mr. Sam Omatseye and his delegation visited her office to brief the NPA management on a conference the newspaper organisation and others are planning.

    The conference, with the theme: “Making Nigerian Sea Ports World Class”, is slated for March 30 at the Civic Centre, Lagos.

    She said the NPA would partner The Nation to fast-track ports’ reforms and boost government revenue.

    The NPA managing director said her team was focusing on how to make the ports the best in the maritime world.

    Ms Usman added that the NPA would pursue the core values of efficiency, customer and stakeholders’ satisfaction, safety and security of port users.

    She pledged her team’s determination to promote accountability, transparency, equity and facilitate trade in line with international best practices.

    The agency, according to her, will collaborate with The Nation and other stakeholders to explore strategies to enthrone 24 hours cargo clearance from the ports through rapid infrastructural growth, reduction in cargo and vessel dwell time, zero-tolerance for corruption and associated vices.

    She said her team would make the ports the hub of maritime business in West and Central African sub-regions to generate more revenue for the government.

    “Let me assure you that NPA will support you to organise this conference because your paper is the best. The Nation is our newspaper. We have special interest in it and we are also proud of your reporter covering the maritime beat. Most of the time, I read his report because of his in-depth investigation. I will give a keynote address as you requested and by the grace of God, we shall all be there,” Ms Usman said.

    NPA, she added, will achieve optimum performance and improved port services capable of attracting higher vessel patronage, translating into more revenue for the Federal Government and the nation.

    Omatseye told Ms Usman The Nation, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Transportation and Epsilon Limited, are organising the port reform conference to bring together agencies connected with ports to facilitate trade, enthrone seamless operations and boost revenue.

    The conference, Omatseye added, is being anchored on an acceptable template and at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Transportation and The Nation.

    The conference, he said, will cover most of the core responsibilities of the NPA, Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC), the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), terminal operators, stakeholders and other port users.

    Omatseye told the NPA boss there was need for the agency as the landlord, to lead other parastatals and operators in harnessing the potential of the nation’s seaports by promoting transparency, synergy and trade facilitation to make the port a hub in the West and Central African sub-region.

     

  • Envoy advises one-stop-shop clearing at ports

    •SON, U.S. Embassy to partner

    Nigeria has been urged to use one-stop-shop for imports and exports to improve processing in line with the Federal Government’s economic diversification agenda.

    The Economic and Commercial Counsellor in the United States, Mr. Ray Hotz, spoke when he visited Director General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON)  Mr. Osita Aboloma in Abuja.

    Hotz said this would fast-track growth of the agro-allied and solid mineral sectors.

    He said through the visit, SON and the embassy’s Economic Section would explore opportunities to ascertain the scope of its operations and priorities.

    The economic counsellor expressed concern about the bureaucracy in Nigeria’s export, which, according to him, encouraged more informal transactions.

    He listed other areas of concern as accurate statistics on rejection of Nigeria’s exports, substandard products import and their sources, smuggling and copyright issues.

    Hotz said the embassy would provide trade capacity growth through Nigeria-American Chamber of Commerce, besides exploring greater opportunities for collaboration with the nation through SON, especially to enable Nigerians take advantage of the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA).

    Aboloma enumerated his organisation’s priorities, among others, as facilitating ease of doing business, supporting diversification of the economy, citizen protection, fighting corruption as well as promoting development of micro, small and medium enterprises through capacity-building initiatives and protection from unfair competition.

    He said Nigeria had product quality certification programmes for local manufacture and imports, namely mandatory conformity assessment programme (MANCAP) and offshore conformity assessment programme (SONCAP).

    These, according to him, are to ensuring that products meet Nigeria’s quality benchmarks in line with international best practices.

    He added that the organisation has internationally accredited laboratories for testing agro and allied products for consumption and export, stressing that SON Act 14 of 2015 gives the agency powers to promote standardisation, enforce standards and prosecute infringements.

    He said SON welcomed the partnership and requested collaboration in human and material capacity growth.

    Other areas, according to Aboloma, include expanding the scope of accreditation of SON laboratories and technological support in track and trace to combat menace of importation and distribution of substandard products.

  • Govt to check corruption with automotion at ports

    The  Federal Government is set to eradicate all corrupt practices facing the development and competitiveness of the Nigerian ports.

    The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi  made the disclosure in Lagos, yesterday, while unveiling the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and the Port Services Support Portal (PSSP) to port operators and stakeholders at the Lagos Ports Complex (LPC), Apapa.

    The Minister said in 2013, maritime operators who do business in the country identified the ports as one of the flashpoint of corruption in their global trade and requested for urgent intervention from the Federal Government.

    In fulfilment of the request, Amaechi said a project steering committee made up of representative of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigerian Ports Authority ((NPA), Nigeria Shippers Council ( NSC), Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria Customs Service ( NCS), ICPC, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and other government agencies at ports was constituted and chaired by the Ministry of Transportation to drive the implementation of the integrity plan.

    Represented by NPA Managing Director,  Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, the minister said the SOP was designed to make the ports user-friendly, stem corruption and increase transparency and accountability towards efficient service delivery.

    “As you are aware, the corruption risk assessment project is an anti corruption project focusing on strategies to reduce corruption in the Nigeria port sector.”

    “The only necessary and sufficient conditions for the port sector to effectively and efficiently support the economy is that the port facilities deliver services in a friendly environment devoid of conflict of interest and corrupt practices,” Amaech said.

  • Customs to tackle fraud at ports

    THE Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Tin Can Island Port Command, has devised means of arresting unscrupulous importers and clearing agents.

    NCSArea Controller Yusuf Bashar, it was gathered, directed his men to ensure that cargo examination was done twice at the terminals to prevent leakages and boost clearance.

    The exercise, the command’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Uche Ejesieme, said  began at the Ports and Cargo Terminal.

    Bashar has handed over a 40-ft container of suspected expired medical devices to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for analysis.

    He also handed over two persons to the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) for allegedly falsifying its Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) document.

    The Apapa Area Command collected N34, 923,757,810.77 last month, making it its highest monthly generation so far this year.

  • Saving jobs at our ports

    With aggressive diversification drive, the ports will be busy again

    Another stark reality of our dire economic situation is the imminent layoff of about 2,000 workers at the ports. President-General of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Mr. Anthony Emmanuel Nted, who raised the alarm over the imminent purge, lamented this development, especially coming after about 3,000 workers were retrenched by 20 shipping companies which closed shop due to the inclement business climate in the country in the last one year.

    According to Nted, “today, we lament the action of the management of Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, in also planning to sack a section of the dockworkers, especially the tally clerks and onboard security men in spite of their importance and relevance in the port operations, as it affects the recurring scourge of tonnage under-declaration and its negative impact on the nation’s economy.

    “The leakage of revenue through under-declaration of tonnage should be seriously tackled. In this regard, we reiterate that tally clerks and onboard security men should be allowed to continue the critical job of uncovering and discouraging under-tonnage which is often done with the unholy collaboration of NPA, shipping companies, agents and terminal operators…Over 2,000 workers(tally clerks and onboard security men) are involved. Their reinstatement will go a long way in reducing the number of unemployed Nigerians, and also reducing the misery of their families,” the MWUN boss said.

    Nted, who appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene to save the jobs by helping the shipping companies that are barely rendering skeletal services now to get back on their feet, also made several suggestions to get our ports busy again.

    Of course, some of the issues that he raised as militating against port operations in the country are not new. For instance, he mentioned expansion and rehabilitation of access roads to the ports as well as the restoration of rail operations in our seaports. We wonder why the government has not deemed it fit to fix these despite the enormous benefits to derive from doing the rightful on them.

    A lot of pressure will be taken off our roads if we heed this advice and road crashes arising from the use of articulated vehicles to transport goods will be reduced. In the same vein, we should develop our waterways to enable them take delivery of laden containers and heavy equipment through our coastal waters into the hinterland. We also have to address the policies that make our ports less attractive to importers and lead to diversion of goods that should naturally come in through our ports to the neighbouring country’s ports, particularly the Cotonou border.

    There is no doubt that the dwindling fortunes at our ports are only reflective of the fraction in the country’s economy, generally. These are indeed terrible times for our maritime business, with little to import and even more than little to export. Even in the best of times, our ports have always been bedevilled by one problem or the other.

    What the situation demands is an aggressive diversification of the economy. Mr Nted said that much: “Government should as a matter of urgency adopt policies towards resuscitating the export of agricultural produce and mineral resources that were hitherto the mainstay of the Nigerian economy before the discovery of oil. This will no doubt create jobs in our seaports and increase revenue for the government.”

    Although we have always known this as an imperative, it is unfortunate that successive governments had only paid lip service to it. With the dwindling fortunes of our sole revenue earner, crude oil, in the international market, we have no choice but to vigorously pursue policies that would wean us off this dependence on oil. When we do this, we will have a lot to export, which would in turn galvanise activities at our ports and thus create hundreds of jobs and reduce social frustrations that could worsen insecurity in the country.

  • ‘Why our ports are most expensive’ 

    Nigerian ports are the most expensive in the West African sub-region, investigations have shown.

    The high cost of the ports is because of the multiple import charges imposed by the ports authority, as well as the rates paid to other government agencies at the ports.

    These charges, it was gathered, are hindering the government’s trade facilitation programme, unlike what happens in other sub-regional ports, such as in Cotonou in Benin Republic.

    In addition, tracing capability and speed, poor yard planning and spacing, online accessibility of pricing and quick debt note reconciliation, among others, also make goods clearance at the ports expensive.

    Others include low level of automation and integration of handling process by government agencies with stakeholders, such as terminal operators, importers, truck drivers and clearing agents. Poor infrastructure, investment profile by the government; un-streamlined movement of containers per crane, per hour from ships to stacking position and the trucks, are other clogs adding to the high cost of doing business in the nation’s ports, said the President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) President, Prince Olayiwola Shitu.

    He blamed the high cost of cargo processing at the ports on these factors, saying that importers clear many charges before taking their goods out of the ports.

    He urged the government to address the problems, so as to reduce the cost of doing business at the ports.

    He said importers pay Customs’ duties and levies that are not uniform in most of the nation’s sea ports, adding that the seven per cent development levy, as well as the one per cent comprehensive import supervision scheme; the 0.5 per cent  ECOWAS Trade Liberation Scheme (ETLS); NIMASA/NPA Sea Protection Levy (SPL); haulage cost, transportation per TEU and terminal operator progressive stage charges, among other tariffs that importers are made to settle, contribute to the disparity in the cost of doing business in the ports and the others in the sub-region.

  • ‘Reduce cost of doing business at ports’

    ‘Reduce cost of doing business at ports’

    The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hammed Ibrahim Ali (rtd), has been urged to reduce the cost of doing business at the ports.

    Delivering a paper titled: “Making the Nigerian ports attractive for business”, at a forum organised by a group, the Tokunbo Vehicles Importers (TVI), a maritime lawyer and don, Mr Dipo Alaka, said Nigeria should implement the NCS Act as one of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) member-countries

    He urged the NCS to repeal the benchmark method of valuation and the arbitrary method used for calculating import duty to attract more business.

    Alaka said the arbitrary method contravenes Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), of which Nigeria is a signatory.

    He said the Customs and Excise Management (Amendment) Act No. 20 of 2003, provides that duty should be determined sequentially on transaction, identical, to similar value, computed, deductive and fall back methods.

    “The simple explanation of the provisions of Act No. 20 of 2003 is that duty on imported goods shall be based on value stated by the seller on the seller’s invoice, and such invoice is usually authenticated by the exporting countries’ chambers of commerce. This is the meaning of method one,” he said.

    Where there is a doubt about the value stated on the seller’s invoice, the duty, he said, could be determined by the value of identical goods from the same country of import and of the same quantity within a maximum time lag of three months.

    This sequential method, Alaka said, should continue until the last method is attained. He wondered why the NCS uses what the “Benchmark method of valuation”  to determine the duty on such import.

    He said: “All that was done in many cases was to allot particular type of import of particular packing unit without reference to the invoice value of the seller from the country of import.

    “So, every container is assessed at the same value or the Customs man may just apply his discretion as to what he feels the value of a particular import should be and then base the duty assessment on that discretion value.”

    This valuation method, he said, “adds to the high cost of doing business in our port’’.

    The lawyer blamed the Customs for frustrating the “genuine complaints of over-assessment in matters of valuation”, describing it as a denial of justice to port users.

    According to him, Paragraph 13 of the 1st Schedule to, Act No. 20, 2003 , which makes the Comptroller-General of Customs a semi-final authority to adjudicate on disagreements on valuation before a dissatisfied party goes to court. It envisages that disagreement over assessment of duty is a civil dispute that should be settled amicably.

    The lawyer regretted that the Customs was frustrating the procedure.

    “Once an assessment is done, it is taken it or leave. All forms of chicanery would be employed to frustrate genuine complaints of over assessment to duty, beginning from delay in attending to the complaint, to subtle threat of declaring the affected overtime cargo, with the unpleasant consequence of being lost to the government,” he added.

  • How to reduce cost at ports, by lawyer

    The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hammed Ibrahim Ali (rtd), has been urged to reduce the cost of doing business at the ports.

    Delivering a paper titled: “Making the Nigerian ports attractive for business”, at a forum organised by a group, the Tokunbo Vehicles Importers (TVI), a maritime lawyer and don, Mr Dipo Alaka, said Nigeria must implement the NCS Act in order to feature among World Trade Organisation (WTO) member-countries

    He urged the NCS to repeal the benchmark method of valuation and arbitrary method of calculating duty payable on imports to attract more business.

    Alaka said the use of arbitrary valuation methods contravene Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to which Nigeria is a signatory.

    He said the Customs and Excise Management (Amendment) Act No. 20 of 2003, provides that duty should be determined sequentially by reference to transaction, identical, similar value, computed, deductive and fall back methods.

    “The simple explanation of the provisions of Act No. 20 of 2003 is that duty on imported goods shall be based on value stated by the seller on the seller’s invoice, and such invoice is usually authenticated by the exporting countries’ chambers of commerce. This is the meaning of method one,” he said.

    Where there is a doubt about the value stated on the seller’s invoice, the duty, he said, could be determined by the value of identical goods from the same country of import and of the same quantity within a maximum time lag of three months.

    This sequential method, Alaka said, should continue where applicable until the last method is attained. He wondered why the NCS uses what may be described as “Benchmark method of valuation” of import or arbitrary method to determine the duty payable on such import.

    He said: “All that was done in many cases was to allot particular type of import of particular packing unit without reference to the invoice value of the seller from the country of import”. “So, every container is assessed at the same value or the Customs man may just apply his discretion as to what he feels the value of a particular import should be and then base the duty assessment on that discretion value.”

    This valuation method, he said, “adds to the high cost of doing business in our ports.”

    The lawyer chided the Customs for frustrating what he called “genuine complaints of over-assessment in matters of valuation”, describing it as a denial of justice to port users.

    According to him, Paragraph 13 of the 1st Schedule to, Act No. 20, 2003 , which mades the Comptroller-General of Customs a semi-final authority to adjudicate on all disagreements on valuation before a dissatisfied party goes to court. It envisages that disagreement over assessment of duty is a civil dispute that, should be settled amicably.

    He, by lawyer regretted that the Customs was frustrating the procedure denying. “Once an assessment is done, it is take it or leave.”

    He continued: “All forms of chicanery would be employed to frustrate genuine complaints of over assessment to duty, beginning from delay in attending to the complaint, to subtle threat of declaring the affected overtime cargo, with the unpleasant consequence of being lost to the government.”

  • Ports concessionaire gets five-year extension

    Ports concessionaire gets five-year extension

    The Federal Government has extended its concession agreement with the Ports and Cargo Handling Company by five years.

    The firm’s Acting Managing Director, Alhaji Mohammed Bulangu told The Nation during the celebration of the 10th anniversary of port concession in Lagos that the terminal has met its obligations in terms of world-class equipment, efficient service delivery and infrastructural development.

    At inception, the terminal, findings showed, inherited 5,000 TEUs capacity from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), which it has grown to 16,000 TEUs.

    The terminal, Bulangu said, has built a warehouse that can store 8,200 metric tonnes of cargoes.

    Since they took over the terminal on May 11, 2006, the company, he said, has invested heavily on equipment and surpassed the projected development plan it had with the Federal Government.

    Bulangu said the terminal, being wholly-owned by an indigenous company, is run by Nigerians with a few expatriates.

    “The initial agreement we had with the Federal Government has been extended by five years and we are even working to see if it could be extended to 25 years.

    “The concession agreement gave provision for expatriates in other to transfer knowledge and this is what we are doing,” he said.

    Port and Cargo, he said, has acquired 10 units of rubber tyre gantries (RTG), 43 terminal tractors, 14 forklifts, 23 stackers, tractors and heavy duty generating sets to boost quick cargo clearance from the port.

    The company, Bulangu said, has witnessed rapid improvement in its IT operations and cargo tracking system.

    Activities of ‘wharf rats’, he said, have been put under check with the provision of light CCTV cameras to monitor human and cargo movements within and around the terminal.

    “Security, safety and health policies are given serious attention, a well-equipped clinic manned by medical doctors and other qualified personnel is provided in the terminal, complemented by two ambulances.

    “The surface of the quay and adjoining open spaces have been cleared of mud and oil spillage, we have provided fire-fighting equipment and muster point at strategic locations.

    “We have fully complied with and exceeded our obligations regarding acquisition of plants and equipment. For instance, we proposed to buy three ship-to-shore cranes, but we have succeeded in buying six.

    “We proposed to buy six rubber tyre gantries (RTG) and we now have 10 modern RTG in our terminal,” he said.

    Bulangu, however, urged the Federal Ministry of Works to fix the Oshodi/Apapa expressway to boost trade and generate more revenue for the government from the ports.