Port users hinge timely delivery of cargo on scanning, automation of clearance process

Worried by the incessant delay in cargo clearance at the port, port users have identified consistent use of scanners for cargo inspection and full automation of clearing procedures as effective means of eliminating bottlenecks that hinder timely delivery of cargo to importers’ warehouses.

Currently, about 60 percent of all cargoes imported through Nigerian port are physically examined by officials of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) despite the existence of scanners left behind by the defunct destination inspection service providers, and this has contributed to the delay in cargo clearance as well as long cargo dwell-time at the port.

BusinessDay checks reveal that cargo clearance at the port has also been hampered by long documentation processes such that it takes over 79 signatures to clear a cargo out of the port. This has succeeded in causing delay that forces many Nigerian importers to pay outrageous sums to terminal operators as storage charges and demurrage to shipping companies for not taking delivery of their consignments as of when due.

Also, the inability of port operators and other government agencies involved in cargo clearance at the port, especially the Nigeria Customs Service, to have an automated central portal where information of cleared and uncleared cargoes can be shared among operators, has also contributed to longer dwell-time of cargo at the port. Presently, it takes an average of 21 days to clear a container out of the port despite the Federal Government 48 hours cargo clearance policy.

Emma Nwabunwanne, a Lagos-based importer, says the Federal Government needs to consolidate on the proposed automation of port operations to enable them deliver on the implementation of e-clearing and single window clearing system at the port. By so doing, he says, cargo clearance will be fast tracked, and this will translate into tremendous increase in cargo throughput at the port.

“This is because more importers, who used to take delivery of their cargoes from ports in the neigbouring countries, will be bringing their goods direct into Nigerian ports, which will become more users friendly,” he says.

Hopefully, Leke Oyewole, senior special assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on maritime matters, said recently in a forum held in Lagos that the Federal Government had directed every agency at the port to automate their clearing processes and linked them with other operators at the port so that importers can clear their goods without having to be physically present.

Nigerian seaport, which has an annual cargo throughput of 80,048,238 metric tons and annual container volume of 1,243,879 twenty equivalent units (TEUs), has in recent years been recording an annual growth in the volume of imported goods.

Obiageli Duru, deputy commercial manager of APM Terminals, says the volume of containerised cargo in Nigerian seaport grows by at least 10 percent, resulting to increased cargo throughput. Cargo throughput, according to her, is growing year-on-year such that an average of 700 TEUs of imported containers are delivered to the importers warehouses on daily basis from Apapa port alone.

“This means that more cargoes are coming into the country in container boxes and that Nigeria’s economy is growing,” she says.

Another major challenge that port users face, which also results to delay in cargo clearance, is the bad state of the access roads that has been creating difficulties in the movement of cargoes in and out of the port. The current state of the road is costing Nigerian port users, including operators, huge sums as many spend greater part of the work hours on gridlock.

“If properly harnessed, the Nigerian port has the potentials of generating huge revenue for the economy owing to the fact that the country is an import dependant country,” says Tony Anakebe, an industry analyst.

“We see a lot of activities that will bring positive growth in Nigerian port industry but for us to get there, government needs to make the two roads leading to the two major seaports in Lagos (Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports), which include Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and Ijora-Apapa Road, to be motorable. This will remove the traffic congestion, which the port users used to experience on the road to ensure free flow of traffic,” according to him.

Uzoamaka Anagor