Manufacturers, LCCI seek improvement at ports to stimulate non-oil sector
The Organised Private Sector (OPS), which includes manufacturers and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, wants an improvement at Nigerian ports to raise the confidence of investors and improve the non-oil sector.
The OPS says it acknowledges the efforts of the Federal Government in improving the ports through the recent Executive Orders, but want a reduction in collections taking place at the ports.
The OPS adds that technology gaps at Nigerian ports lead to unnecessary delays, corruption and low revenue for the government and must be tackled via migration from analogue to digital.
Muda Yusuf, director-general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), lamented the new import guidelines which provide that shipping lines ensure that Nigeria-bound containerised cargo was palletised, saying that not all containerised cargoes were amenable to palletisation.
“Products such as tyres, chemicals in drums, plastic raw materials in bags, powdered milk and similar products are imported in bags and are not amenable to palletisation,” Yusuf said.
“Palletisation of these products will be clumsy, aggravate the cost of freights, cause gross underutilisation of container space, creates risk of damage to cargo, among other unintentional negative consequences,” he said.
A manufacturer in the food and beverage industry told Real Sector Watch that one of the major challenges faced by non-oil sector players in the country was high charges at ports.
“Nigerian ports remain among the most expensive in the world. When you bring in certain items for your industries, the charges are so high that you feel like quitting manufacturing,” said the manufacturer, who spoke in anonymity because he is not his company’s spokesperson.
Tony Anakebe, managing director of Gold Link Investment Limited, said Nigerian seaports had the longest cargo dwell time, compared to any other ports across the world owing to the number of government agencies there.
“The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has more than ten units that an import document must pass through, while other agencies have between four and five units, and all these constitute delays,” he stated.
Nigeria loses N1 trillion each year to avoidable delays caused by paper work done by 14 government departments, some of which are performing overlapping functions, according to a recent report by the LCCI. Nigeria has six major ports, the Apapa Port, Tin-Can Island Port, Calabar Port, Onne Port, Rivers Port, and Warri Port, but Apapa and Tin Can make up 80 percent of the entire revenue from the ports.
ODINAKA ANUDU & AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE