NPA decries rising cost of cargo importation over war risk insurance premium
Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has raised alarm over the war risk insurance premium placed on vessels calling Nigerian seaports, following the high rate of pirate activities as well as the unrest in the Niger-Delta region.
According to her, the war risk insurance premium, has translated into high cost of cargo importation into the nation’s seaports as importers, who pay such premium, also increase the market prices of goods for the end users.
Speaking while presenting a paper on “Driving the Change Agenda through Freight Forwarding at the colloquium held in Lagos recently in honour of Prince Olayiwola Shittu @68, Usman said that the NPA is collaborating with the Nigerian Navy and other agencies of government that are responsible for providing security on the waterway.
“One of the concerns that have bedeviled our ports is the high cost of bringing in cargo, which is attributable to the insurance policy that vessels have to take before coming into our waterways. The NPA, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Navy are collaborating to deal with the security issues on our maritime domain,” she said.
Continuing, she said: “Currently, they have war insurance that the vessels have to take to enable them come into our waters and this translate into a high cost of importation of goods into the country.
Usman further revealed that the NIMASA is currently deploying strong security architecture to address the issue of criminalities on Nigerian waters.
“We hope that within the next four to six months, we will see reduced activities of pirates along the waterways especially in the Niger-Delta region. This is something that we are anxious to have and we believed that NIMASA with the support of the Nigerian Navy will deal with that,” she said.
She however encouraged the Nigerian Navy and the NIMASA to ensure that piracy threat is addressed through inter agency collaboration.
On cargo clearance, Usman said that the greatest challenge at the port was to have agencies that are directly involved in cargo clearance play their respective roles seamlessly.
“The NPA should not be blamed for lapses in cargo clearance because it takes more than NPA to see cargo out of the ports. It is only when cargo has proven to be righteous to border post rules, regulations and laws that it can be made available for maritime logistics,” she stated.
The challenge, according to her, is to get all agencies come under the single window which the NPA is under-taking in collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
On other achievements recorded by the authority in recent time, Usman stated the NPA is also engaging other agencies who have a role to play in intermodal connectivity like using railways and inland waterways to improve cargo delivery.
“To underscore the passion we have in achieving this, the authority recently organised and hosted the International African Ports and Harbour (IAPH) Africa regional conference where ways of achieving hinterland connectivity, were discussed.
She however lamented that seized cargo and detained containers in the port occupy space and impair the role of the ports as an efficient transit area, even as she advised freight forwarders to desist from contributing to the challenges of cargo clearance.
“In order to execute its role of achieving the Ease of Doing Business and coupled with the expectations of the World Bank trade facilitation agreement, the NPA is collaborating with NCS to introduce the much awaited Single Window Platform, aimed at simplifying and harmonising formalities, procedures and the related exchange of information as well as documents between the various partakers in cargo clearance.
AMAKA ANAGOR