Govt needs to develop ports outside Lagos to reduce cost for importers, says Anakebe
Nigerian port system is being confronted by several bottlenecks that hinders timely delivery of cargo to importer’s warehouse and also add to high cost of doing business at the port. In this interview, Tony Anakebe, a renowned maritime analyst, who doubles as the managing director of Gold-Link investment Limited, a clearing and forwarding company, opines that there need to develop Eastern ports to decongest Lagos. He spoke on other issues.
Manual inspection and implications
Today, it is only physical examination of cargo that is carried out in Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports and this is delaying fast clearance of cargo at the port. From my investigation, decrease in the usage of scanners by Customs started from September 2014 till date such that every container goes through 100 percent physical examination. The development has resulted to long queue of yet to be examined containers at the examination bay of the ports given to the large volume of cargoes that pass through Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports.
This is causing a lot of delay in cargo clearance and the terminal operators, whose responsibilities are to handle these containers and drop them at the examination bay for Customs’ inspection, are not finding the situation easy too.
Relying on 100 percent physical examination has not only jeopardised the essence of DI contract and private sector investment at the port, but has also hiked the cost of doing business at the port as importers now pay more as demurrage to shipping companies and storage charges to terminal operators for not taking delivery of their consignment as when due. For instance, a container that is supposed to be cleared in one week now take over a month to go through physical examination before it would be cleared.
There is need for 100 percent scanning of containers and Customs needs to put this equipment in proper condition in order to facilitate trade. This will help in reducing the pains of importers and their agents, who spends weeks waiting for their consignments to be inspected.
Multiple govt agencies
Globally, countries try to remove every impediment to international trade but here; we make laws that we do not enforce effectively. Some of the government agencies that left the port years back are still hanging around stopping containers and taking them to their warehouses.
This action ends up disturbing the business of the importer, the truck owner and the shipping company. Among the sacked government agencies, Plant and Animal Quarantine, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is in the port though they follow the rule.
For instance, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has done a good job by introducing SONCAP, and all they need to do is to work with the relevant agencies to stop importers without genuine certificate from opening ‘Form M’ and this will send a note of warning to importers of fake goods to desist from it. There is also need for all government agencies to automate their systems using ICT in order to facilitate trade.
Cost of doing business at port
The cost of doing business at the port has become unquantifiable due to all these bottlenecks that confront importers and their agents. It does not take an agent with proper documentation up to a week to clear goods in any part of the world and this is how it is supposed to be in Nigeria. If you compare the cost of doing business in Nigeria to that of Ghana, the margin will be so much. This is why some Nigerian importers prefer to send their goods to Cotonu and Ghana, clear and bring them to Nigeria despite the risk involved. But this cost can be reduced, if all these agencies are removed.
For over five years, we have been dwelling on issues such as lack of motorable roads into the port. Imagine how much government has been losing due to that, how much more the health implication on port workers including the lost on private investment at port?
Due to the incessant traffic congestion at the port, price of haulage has gone on the high side. This is because price of haulage increases based on the prevailing circumstance. When the road was so bad, it takes a trucker about four days to load and come out of the port and it cost not less than N150,000 to take a container to a warehouse that is within Lagos.
Expectations from Buhari’s government
Nigerian maritime sector can feed this nation; therefore the new government needs to develop the sector by investing in the port. They should reduce the cost of doing business in the port. Developing deep seaports in Lekki and Badagry is not the solution to the problem at the port rather we need to develop the ports outside Lagos including building dry ports in the north. Lagos should be the hub where ships berth and goods transferred to other ports to ease congestion.
Also, government agencies that have no business at the port should be made to leave the port. There is need for single automation of systems and this is the best way forward for import to grow without undue delay.
UZOAMAKA ANAGOR-Ewuzie