Cost of doing business at port to drop as NSC introduces new policy measure

The cost of doing business at Nigeria’s seaports will soon witness a sharp drop as the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has perfected plans to introduce a new policy measure that would improve the efficiency of shipping services in the port industry.

To do this, the Council will in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) establish a new platform that would integrate all operators and ensure that every payment is reflected in the platform. It will create a port community system that integrates all players. The platform is a command and control centre that creates a nexus between all existing systems in the port.

The Council has however designed a template and standard tariff system that will ensure 30-40 percent reduction in cost and harmony in tariff. The system will harmonise every port transaction in such a way that transfer of containers to off-dock terminal will not attract extra charge in terms of payment of royalty to the terminal operator to eliminate double charges to the shippers.

Hassan Bello, executive secretary of the Council, who disclosed this in Lagos recently, said “the idea of harmonising the system is to enthrone transparency by removing uncertainty that comes with how much to pay and how long to take delivery of the goods.

“The new port order will eliminate all the wastages in the system so that the cost of doing business is reduced. Part of the arrangement is that the owner of the cargo should know when his cargo arrives to prepare him to make arrangements to clear his goods in good time.”

Explaining further, the new port order will involve a situation where the cargo is scanned before it is stacked. As the ship is discharging, the cargo is also being scanned, and the image is used by the Customs to commence clearing process such as segregating the cargo for line of inspection, such as green, yellow and red light. This is the global practise and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) wants all cargo to be pre-scanned before stacking, he said.

“We want to make it easy for all stakeholders to benefit from what we are doing. It is for agents, inspection stations or ship inspection, shipping companies, ports authority, maritime administrators, Customs, terminal operators, road haulers, exporters and transporters,” he said.

According to him, the new platform will help in establishing a framework where the competitiveness of the industry will be enhanced beyond its neighbouring ports of Cotonou, Ghana, Cameroon, among others.

The measure, he said, will help to improve safety and security of the port industry through the integration and sharing of intelligent information among stakeholders to track down importation of dangerous goods. “It will also harmonise and simplify administrative and clearance procedures through the establishment of business networks and supports. Also, the maritime electronic highway that will evolve from the platform will be accessible for only users who collaborate with NSC at this point in time,” he said.

In area of automation, port operators and agencies at the ports have embraced automation such that all are already connected to the Nigeria Customs Service Information System (NSIS), the Shippers’ Council boss said.

ANAGOR UZOAMAKA