Nigerian ports lag behind peers over poor, 100% physical inspection of cargo

Manual inspection of cargo and 100 percent physical examination of imported containers at the nation’s seaports, which not only results to delay in cargo clearance but adds to high cost of doing business, have taken Nigerian ports behind ports in the advanced countries of the world.

As a result, importers and their agents, whose consignments spend weeks at the ports over delayed cargo clearance, count losses as containers that ought to be cleared in days, now take weeks.

It was discovered that the inspection procedure worsened in 2015, owing to the breakdown of the scanning equipment at Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports, which left the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) with the option of returning to 100 percent physical examination. Recall that Customs took over the operations of these scanners after the Destination Inspection (DI) service providers left the ports at the expiration of their seven-year built, owned and operate contract with the Federal Government.

“Our inspection system is very poor. Nigerian port is not applying any international best practices in any form, both in its clearing procedures and otherwise. Currently, no scanning machine is working at the port,” Lucky Amiwero, a maritime analyst, who spoke with BusinessDay in an interview, confirmed.

The poor operating standard of the ports, Amiwero noted, has resulted in high cost of doing business at the ports due to the delay in cargo clearance, saying, “With are all our scanners not working, it means that trade is not facilitated and when we compare our ports with ports in the neighbouring country of Benin Republic, it shows that we are far behind. This is one of the reasons why Nigerians prefer Benin to Nigerian port.”

“Nigeria lags behind countries like Singapore, Antwerp in Belgium, Malaysia, China, Europe, America, and Asia, who have adopted modern cargo inspection procedure. It takes about five minutes to scan a container and 20 minutes to carryout image analysis, but it takes over five hours to carry out physical examination,” Hassan Bello, executive secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), said at a forum in Lagos recently.

According to Bello, importers are made to incur some avoidable cost associated with clearance delayed due to rent and demurrage that they are compelled to pay to the terminal operators and shipping companies.

Jonathan Nicole, president, Shippers’ Association of Lagos State, who noted that Nigerian port was operating in a very abnormal situation owing to the fact that most of the clearing procedures were out of context, said ports in countries like Sri Lanka have improved turnaround time of vessels, installed electronic cargo clearing processes, and their Customs now operate from outside the port.

“Nigeria Customs brought in the pre-shipment inspection, after which the destination inspection came and all failed. Now, Customs introduced the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) to replace Risk Assessment Report (RAR), but all of these systems have collapsed. Then, Customs reverted to physical examination because the scanners have collapsed, which means that shippers would be spending more money to clear their containers,” he said.

The Shippers’ Association boss further stated that cargo clearance delay in the port was compounded by the constant interception of released cargo at the port gate by Customs Intelligent Unit (CIU). “Ironically, after the 100 percent physical examination, the CIU will at the exit point question the result of the examination carried out by all government agencies at the port. This means that there is corruption in the system and the CIU needs to leave the port.”

While noting that a handful of individuals are benefiting from these problems, he added that nothing was working at the nation’s seaports. “Until government put its feet on the ground, Nigeria port system would remain underdeveloped. Government needs to institute a new port order because this is not how the port system all over the world operates,” he said.