The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has called on the multinational companies and terminal operators operating in the nation’s seaport to emulate the good virtue demonstrated by the Dangote group in seeking to reconstruct port access road from Ijora to Wharf as a way of giving back to the society that had given so much to them.
The National Publicity Secretary of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto who made this call in chat with newsmen in Lagos Tuesday also called on the Federal government to impress it on them to engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) so as to make them accountable and take responsibility toward the society they live and earn their living.
Farinto suggested that since the nation’s maritime sector was witnessing gridlock on its access roads as a result of lack of holding bays for trucks to park and wait for business, it wouldn’t have been out of place if two or more multinational companies or terminal operators should undertake to construct one standard holding bay with the capacity to accommodate between 300 and 400 trucks as part of the CSR.
He said, “The unfortunate thing is that there are no holding bays for trucks and that is most of multinational companies that are working in the maritime industry need to do what is called Corporate Social Responsibility. It will not be out of place if two or more of them could merge together and provide a minimal holding bay such that can hold between 300 and 400 trucks and that should be done as CSR. It will go a long way in decongesting our ports. It is not everything that will be left for the government.
“So, if it is done and you have an area like that, you collect toll from there, people will appreciate it but in a situation where you leave your truck within the port environment and you are looking for business, it is not ideal and we are not supporting that”.
The NPS recalled that the problem that the industry had was that of the inability of the multinationals to realize that they were supposed to give back to the society adding that it was time government make them realize that.
“Let me take APMT for example, APMT will just go to one Secondary school and distribute exercise books and they call that one Corporate Social Responsibility, for crying out loud, that is not the way it is done. How much did you make in 2015 and what did you give out to the society? But because the government has not really come down on them and says every multinational must have a CSR, it is when government do that that you have sanity in the system.
“Bu Dangote feels that he is using most of the terminals in the port and he is also feeling the impacts of the bad road, if within the management they now decide to give back to the society, the kind of road they want to give us, nobody will do that kind of road, government cannot even afford it. It is concrete not even tars, it is very expensive.
“So, if Dangote out of his magnanimity says he wants to give back to the society, we should appreciate that and encourage other multinationals to emulate them and there is nothing ANLCA can do than to say that we are calling on all other multinationals to emulate what Dangote is doing by giving back to the society”, he said.
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