Cargo Tracking Note to cost shippers $30m per annum, says Usifoh
Val Usifoh, chairman, Shipping Association of Nigeria (SAN) in this interview bared his mind on the planned reintroduction of Cargo tracking Note (CTN) by Nigeria Shippers’ Council (NSC) and other issues relating to challenges facing shipping firms’ operations in Nigerian seaport.
Challenges for shipping firms
There is too much officialdom in the port because every government agency wants to be in the port but this is gradually coming down. It is only now when discipline has been enthroned as a way of life that some of them are not physically present.
We are also dealing with too much paper work when the world has gone electronic with e-commerce, e-trading yet some agencies still believe in manual operations. As chairman, Port Industry Anti-corruption Committee, we tried to help the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and others to minimise physical contact in the port because it was the reason why things do not move well and there is corruption.
There is infrastructural decay because the nation has not put enough investment on a regular basis to upgrade our ports. Apapa and Tin-Can are the major ports that are active even now that business is going down. And this is because they are attractive, more secure and system seems to work better here than elsewhere. It is no longer easy to get cargo into the port and this make the customers’ cargo to spend more time in the port.
The roads are bad. Apapa-Oshodi Expressway from Coconut to Berger has been under construction over years; Coconut to Trinity has been abandoned while the nearly finished Trailer Park has also been abandoned. Until inland dry-ports are developed with a good railway system, and roads other than Western Avenue and Apapa-Oshodi Expressway developed to take goods out of the port, the problem will continue.
Another one is inconsistence in government policies that affect the generality of the business environment, which shipping is part of. Government policies should be predictable so that when one is making medium or long-term investment, the person is sure. Above all, international trade is on the decline. Business is down for everybody and if it is down for the importer, it is down for the shipping company. It is a global trend but we are feeling it more because we are import dependant.
We need better port facility because bigger ships are coming in but government is not investing on building new ports, which make the international shipping lines to transship the cargo at a certain point to be able to come into Nigerian ports. We need bigger channels, bigger facilities to turn the ships round-the-clock 24/7. It is only in Lagos and may be Onne that we have wider channels why we have other redundant ports like Calabar, Warri and Old Port Harcourt port, but as it is now, every Nigerian importer has to find way to Lagos to take delivery of cargo.
For instance, the difficulty in businesses getting dollars is why people are not importing as they used to. Things are more expensive and ships are not coming as before, so there is less cargo coming in. Government has been on rice and automotive policies. If government will give the local businesses opportunity to develop, create enough support for goods and service before starting to implement these policies, it will help businesses to plan.
RoRo ports
Before this auto policy came into existence, 80 percent of the tokunbu vehicles were coming into Nigeria while 20 percent come via Cotonu. At that time all the second hand trucks were coming through the port but after the policy, over half of the second hand vehicles are going to Cotonu meaning that Nigeria port has loss over 50 percent of the second vehicles and these vehicles are needed because the number of assembling plants in Nigeria is not enough to cater for the needs of the nation’s population and new cars are not affordable to most Nigerians.
Also, Grimaldi is a terminal that used to have two ships everyday and now, it gets one ship in four days. One cannot plan if government does not give a long term prospect for business development.
CTN
If the government says it will reintroduce CTN, that is it position but that of the shipping firms is that there is a cost attached because the information that would go into the manifest will be produce by the shipper. If it is reintroduce, the shipping agent will pay so much, it will cost up to $30 million per annum. The estimation is from the money that would be paid per unit of container, vehicle and bulk cargoes and it is the cargo owner that would pay for it. Business is already bleeding and it is fundamental that when it starts there would be a cost.
If the argument is on security, the security agencies have a way of tracking what comes in. The volume of imported hard drugs and contrabands has reduced because the agencies concern is on them and there is also an electronic platform for tracking cargo.
Corruption
Corruption is attitudinal and Nigerian business sector cannot end corruption at possible short time because many people come to the port with the mindset on making money. We discovered that there were too much human contact in the port and we started creating awareness that people do not need to be in the port to transact their business as done globally. Secondly, we found out that there were too many parties in the port system that hinders smooth running of businesses. We tried to create that sensitisation and to make example with the defaulters but Nigerian legal system also frustrated the effort. If everybody do not show the same passion to fight corruption, it will be difficult to be removed.