Nigeria’s seaports still struggle with clearing bottlenecks amid Executive Order

One year into the implementation of the Presidential Order on Ease of Doing Business, the nation’s seaports still struggle with cargo clearing bottlenecks, which hinder timely delivery of consignments to importers’ warehouses.

The development has been attributed to the failure of some government agencies involved in cargo clearance at the ports, to realign their operations into complying with the stipulations and tenets of the Presidential Order on Ease of Doing Business, issued by the office of the vice President Yemi Osinbajo in 2017.

It is expected that the effective implementation of the order will lead to decline in cost of doing business at the ports as importers save the cost incurred on import and export cargoes in form of demurrage payment to shipping companies and rent payment to terminal operators for delayed cargo clearance.

BusinessDay understands that apart from the failure of some government agencies to comply with the order, the poor and dilapidated portions of road infrastructure leading to the seaports and the extortion of importers and their agents by officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), also get in the way of Ease of Doing Business at the ports.

Also, the non-existence of multimodal transport system, which if in existence, would have seen the seaports effectively connected to alternative transportation modes like rail and inland waters, and the multiple checking points created by Customs as well as extortion by officers of Marine Police, impede the gains of the Executive Order.

Listing reasons the Nigerian ports are yet to enjoy the benefits of the Executive Order, Kayode Farinto, vice president of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANCLA), pointed out that NCS has failed to conform with the order on Ease of Doing Business by imposing double examination of containers; extortion of agents; arrest and re-arrest of containers and querying the valuation of already released consignment by men of Federal Operations Units (FOU) of Customs.

Farinto also blamed Federal Government policy inconsistent and the bottlenecks created by some shipping companies while cargo clearance, for the failure of the seaports to reap the benefits of the Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business.

“The Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Ali is not bigger than Nigeria, he and his men cannot continue to flout the Executive Order and actions not taken to address that. The Inspector General of Police should also come to the port and see how the officers of Marine Police left their statutory functions of securing life and property at the ports, to obtaining manifest from shipping companies in order to intercept containers so that agents will come to them for settlement, where as much as N150,000 is paid per containers,” Farinto alleged in a statement issued at the weekend.

He also identified the need for the NPA management to ensure that officials of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine are prevented from entering the ports. He however appealed to the NPA to ensure that the newly constructed temporary Truck Park at Tin-Can Island Port (TCIP), is put to immediate use.

While calling on the Federal Government to declare state of emergency, Farinto stated that Nigeria needs not to pretend that all is well when there is total system collapse in the maritime industry.

On its part, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has threatened to seek the intervention of the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to handle the high level of non-compliance to the Presidential Order on the Ease of Doing Business at the nation’s seaports by some government agencies.

This is because the office of the Vice President oversees the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), which issued the Presidential Order, and also streamlined the activities of all agencies in the seaport in order to achieve the 48-hour cargo clearance.

In a statement issued at the weekend, Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the NPA, in reaction to the complaints by some stakeholders that the level of compliance to the Presidential Order by some government agencies, one year after the order was issued, has left much to be desired, issued the .

Receiving a delegation of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA) in her office at the weekend, Usman said that the way some government agents flout the order has limited its positive impact and the Federal Government needs to know those flouting the rules.

While assuring that the Authority would continue to fulfill its own part of the order, Usman stated that the authority has the limitation of compelling other agencies to do what they are supposed to do under the presidential directives.

Reacting to the complain on the incessant cases of multiple checks on cargoes exiting the ports by officers of the Marine Police Command, Usman promised that she would report the matter to the Inspector General of Police for necessary action especially as regards the alleged cases of extortion.

AMAKA ANAGOR