The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has said that it has in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) saved for the Federal Government, a total of $2.7 billion that would have gone down the drain from the oil subsidy claims by the importers of the wet cargoes.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Mr. Hassan Bello who stated this while briefing the members of the House Committee on Ports, Harbours and Waterways who paid a visit to the Council’s headquarters in Lagos Tuesday observed that the money was saved in the last five years.
Explaining further on the amount, the Director, Commercial Shipping NSC, Mrs. Dabney Shall Holmer stated that the Council was able to save such amount through vetting and confirmation of each request for foreign exchange to be paid by the CBN.
She disclosed that in vetting the claims for payment by the major oil marketers, it was discovered that there were incidences of overcharging, exaggeration of freight as well as payment for services not rendered.
According to her, “We confirm the lodgment of that cheque. So, each time there is a request for FOREX or foreign exchange to be paid, it comes to us, we check it and it was during the cause of checking them that we discovered that there were incidences of overcharging, there incidences of exaggeration of freight, there were incidences of freight that was paid for services not rendered. That was what gave us that figure in five years”.
Speaking further, she said,” It is not a recovery, it is saving to the economy, which means we were blocking the leakages, we were blocking wastages and we were determining a lower rate higher than what we expected.
“So, you have to first of all understand the principle. I am a shipper, I want to import wet cargo and it was strictly on oil, and I import the wet cargo but the rate I am quoting for that particular import is too high. Why? Because, if I bring with a high import, then my subsidy will be higher because the total sum of the product plus the cost of carriage on which I am being paid subsidy, so, if you look at the entire subsidy saga, that is when this was going on.
“So, there were certain imports that were made but no import at all and we were able to block that. So, this is the entire savings to the nation in five years is $2.7”.
Responding, the Chairman House Committee on Ports, Harbours and Waterways, Hon. Pat Asadu disclosed that they were at the Council’s headquarters to see what the Council did with the money budgeted for it last year and to see what money they were trying to appropriate for it this year adding that Immediately after the passage of this year’s budget, they were going to come back to the port to engage the stakeholders on the way forward for the industry.
While describing the meeting as revealing, Hon. Asadu averred that the meeting had shown that every agency under the Ministry of Transport including the Parliament needed to work together and sit up knowing that the days of cheap oil money were gone.
“This meeting have been very revealing, it has shown us that we need to work, the parliament, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the Nigerian Ports Authority, the National Inland Waterways, the NIMASA, everybody in the transport sector must sit up and know that gone are the days of cheap oil money, this is the day of looking inwards and inwards is already there because if you were with us yesterday and saw what is going on, what we need to do, the institutional framework has been done, but there are few legal things you need to touch but what is on ground has assured me that this country, we are going in the right direction.
“From what we saw yesterday at the port and from what we have seen here today, it is obvious that this country can only go forward. We will have our challenges but we have enough on the ground, enough in terms of manpower, we have them in terms of resources to put this country to where Singapore is operating because we are looking at a sector that because of cheap oil money, we abandon our maritime sector.
“Fortunately, we have institutions that have started developing capacity like the Shippers’ Council, like the concession of the ports, with the port reforms and with the efforts which this committee is going to put in, which the Senate is going to put in, which the present government is going to put in to get Nigeria earning as much if not more than what we are earning from oil”, he said.
On measures to ensure that all the efforts being made to reposition the sector was not a mere talk without much commitment, the Committee Chairman had this to say,” I will not just make promises but let us watch, when we come back for oversight next year, hold us to say this is where we were, where are you now. So, you must also benchmark and know what is going on in the maritime sector, know what the shippers’ council is able to achieve. In a year’s time, we will be in this building and we will tell you in explicit terms that we were in terminal A and we have not gone to terminal B and we have no option because if we don’t thrive, our future is totally endangered”.
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