BEING A COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF A TWO-DAY CONFERENCE ON “IMPROVED PORTS EFFICIENCY IN NIGERIA” ORGANISED BY THE MARITME CORRESPONDENTS’ ORGANISATION OF NIGERIA IN LAGOS STATE ON FEBRUARY 25-26, 2016
INTRODUCTION
Nigeria has for some years now been experiencing her own share of the global economic downturn, especially as a country that depends almost entirely on crude oil for her foreign exchange earnings. The country also has for years now been combating the universal rise in violent crimes, especially insurgency and other similar acts of terror.
In the light of the above, the new Administration led by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR has begun a determined drive to diversify the nation’s economy as well as develop and harness other sources of revenue to cushion the devastating effects of the drastic fall in the prices of petroleum products at the international market. In line with this commendable but challenging project of diversifying the nation’s economy, the need to engender a new regime of efficiency and security in the nation’s maritime sector as one of the biggest non-oil revenue earners in the country through proactive measures has become imperative.
This realisation informed the holding of a two-day Conference on “Improved Ports Efficiency in Nigeria” organised by the Maritime Correspondents’ Organisation of Nigeria (MARCON) at Rockview Hotel, Apapa, Lagos State and the Nigeria Maritime Press Centre, Eleganza Plaza, Apapa on Thursday, February 25 and Friday, February 26, 2016 respectively.
The Conference, which was declared open by the Honourable Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, drew participants from the public and private sectors of the economy, including the Federal Ministry of Transport, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Integrated Logistics Service Limited (INTELS), Stellarchem Nigeria Limited, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, terminal operators, transporters, ancillary ports service providers and the media.
The Honourable Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi presented the keynote address at the Conference, which also featured two sessions of paper presentations.
The first session chaired by the Founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam featured two paper presentations. The first paper presented by the NPA on “Improved Ports Efficiency in Nigeria as a Catalyst for Economic Growth” detailed different initiatives by the agency to deepen efficiency at the nation’s ports. The second paper presented by NIMASA on “ISPS Code Compliance: Challenges and Prospects” examined the steps initiated by the organisation to ensure the nation’s compliance with global templates for ships and ports safety.
The second session chaired by the National President of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, Mr. Lucky Amiwero also featured two paper presentations. The first paper of the second session presented by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council on “Challenges of Ports Regulation in Nigeria: The Nigerian Shippers Council Perspective” reviewed the barriers to efficient economic regulation of the nation’s ports and efforts made to scale them, while the second paper presented by Alhaji Galtima Liman, a shipping consultant and policy analyst, on “A Pragmatic Change Approach for Improving Nigeria’s Ports Industry Performance” proffered innovative solutions to the challenges of efficient performance in the nation’s ports system.
At the end of the presentations and deliberations, the following observations and resolutions were made:
OBSERVATIONS
The Conference observed that:
Although there have been different interventions by the Federal Government and other maritime stakeholders to make the nation’s ports more effective and efficient, the nation’s ports system is still experiencing a great number of challenges working to de-market the nation in the global shipping community and other centres of maritime business.
The state of the nation’s ports and their inefficient management structure are a major factor compelling shippers, importers and other maritime investors to divert cargoes and other consignments ordinarily destined for Nigeria to neighbouring countries, resulting in the loss of huge revenue to the nation.
Nigeria has some of the highest ports charges in the world, with most of the charges not tied to any service offered and provided.
A well-managed, effective and efficient ports system is not only capable of establishing Nigeria as the hub of maritime business in Africa and positioning the nation as the maritime destination of choice on the continent, but also generating huge non-oil revenues in sync with the Federal Government’s determined and strategic drive to develop and harness non-oil sources of revenue to mitigate the impact of the fall in the global prices of petroleum products.
Lack of holistic profiling of individuals accessing the nation’s ports is a huge security risk given the sophistication of the global trend of terrorism and other violent crimes.
There is a sustained experience of unhealthy inter-agency rivalry among government institutions operating in or with operations connected to the nation’s ports, customs revenue and other maritime funds.
Ports and other maritime facilities and infrastructure are more often than not sited on the basis of political expediency rather than their viability and strategic importance to government’s drive to deepen maritime efficiency and broaden the nation’s sources of non-oil revenue.
The roles of government agencies with functions bearing on the ports are not properly defined and delineated, thus creating a bottleneck of overlapping functions and encouraging an atmosphere of confusion and conflict among the agencies.
The Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and other documents guiding the public-private partnership initiative at the nation’s ports are at best shrouded in secrecy and at worst inelegantly packaged, thus leaving loopholes that have so far been exploited by ports service providers at the expense of ports users and the revenue interest of government.
The greatest flaw of the concession arrangement at the nation’s ports is its costly oversight in not specifically designating a ports regulator, a situation that has made progressive supervision and control of the ports service providers impossible. And that the subsequent designation of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council as the ports economic regulator has so far failed to fully correct the error.
Inconsistency in government maritime policies and failure to appoint substantive chief executive officers for government agencies in the maritime sector are a source of uncertainty in ports administration and other maritime agencies.
Although the nation is not lacking in maritime expertise and skilled manpower, there has been a sustained unwillingness by government to patronise or rely on indigenous capacity or deepen the capacity of the nation’s maritime experts through training, retraining and provision of state-of-the-art equipment to enable them properly function.
Reports of different committees set up by government at various times in the past on the roadmap to achieving an efficient ports system in the country as well as observations and recommendations made by different maritime associations, groups and stakeholders have not been given proper consideration in the nation’s bid to entrench an effective and efficient ports system in the country.
Nigeria cannot make progress without a deliberate project directed at freeing the nation’s ports access roads and ports of congestion and ensuring the roadworthiness of vehicles involved in freight operations.
RESOLUTIONS
Based on the foregoing observations, the Conference resolved that:
Government should immediately designate a general ports regulator with well-defined roles or broaden the powers of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the extant ports economic regulator, to ensure proper regulation of ports users and ports service providers. This will ensure uniformity in standards, quality of service provided and the amounts chargeable for similar services offered. The Federal Executive Council should work with the National Assembly as a matter of urgency to pass the various pending bills on the nation’s maritime development.
Government should immediately define and properly delineate the roles of the different agencies involved in ports operations with a view to eliminating the current atmosphere of conflict and unhealthy rivalry. This will enable a new regime of order and cooperation.
Government should immediately embark on a holistic profiling of individuals and cargoes accessing the ports in conjunction with the different maritime associations, groups and stakeholders. This will not only boost the confidence of international and local ports users and organisations, but also help in checking and eliminating security threats to the nation.
Government should immediately embark on rehabilitation of all ports access roads, ensure the connection of the nation’s rail lines to the ports and ensure that ports and other maritime facilities, including the development of deep seaports, are established or built on needs basis rather than political expediency. Freeing ports access roads will not only reduce the cost of doing business in the nation’s ports, but also ensure efficiency, which will in turn attract a greater volume of maritime business to the nation’s ports.
Further to (4) above, trucks and other vehicles involved in freight operations should only be allowed to move into the nation’s ports vicinity only when they have been pre-scheduled for operation and government should develop both adequate truck holding bays and parks in partnership with private sector organisations.
Government should immediately name substantive heads for all agencies in the maritime sector, including NIMASA and the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa Ibom, to ensure consistency, stability as well as quick and effective decision making.
Government should immediately set up a high-powered committee of inter-agency and cross-career experts to review all recommendations made towards achieving an effective ports system in the country with a view to identifying useful suggestions for adoption and implementation.
Government should urgently design a workable template of relationship among its agencies in the maritime sector and ensure that funds meant for disbursement from one agency to another by law and government directives are not unnecessarily delayed, withheld or misappropriated. This will not only reduce the conflicts often experienced among government agencies, including between NIMASA and MAN, Oron, but also ensure accountability and transparency.
Government should not only immediately review its contract with the ports service providers, but also commission an obligations performance audit based on its memoranda of understanding with the service providers to block leakages, ensure transparency, reduce the cost of doing business at the ports and encourage patronage of the nation’s ports by shippers, importers and other stakeholders.
Government should in conjunction with the organised private sector urgently take steps to modernise the nation’s ports through the procurement of state-of-the-art equipment for management of the nation’s ports in line with the global best practice of paperless ports system.
Government should deepen the involvement of local maritime experts in the nation’s ports through patronage of their consultancy services. This will not only strengthen local capacity, but also discourage capital flight.
The efforts of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration to stamp out corruption in the country and ensure transparency and accountability in the running of government business should be fully encouraged, supported and embraced by all maritime agencies and stakeholders, as the sector is one of the most viable alternatives to the nation’s over-dependence on oil revenue.
The Honourable Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi be specially commended for his display of exemplary leadership and sense of duty in not only personally attending the Conference despite his crowded schedule, but also doing so at least two hours before time. This example is commended to all government functionaries in the spirit of change the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration embodies.
The Federal Ministry of Transport, the Nigerian Ports Authority, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the Nigeria Customs Service, INTELS, NAGAFF, ANLCA, Stellarchem Nigeria Limited, NARTO, the media and other stakeholders be specially appreciated for their different roles in ensuring the success of the Conference.
SEGUN OLADIPUPO BARR. CHRIS IWARAH
Secretary, Communique Drafting Committee Chairman, Communique Drafting Committee
UCHE USIM MR. ISMAIL ANIEMU
Chairman, Conference Planning Committee President, MARCON
