The National President of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Mr. Lucky Eyis Amiwero has faulted the move by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to embark on the review of the port concession agreement with the terminal operators at the nation’s seaports arguing that it is the responsibility of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) to do so.
Amiwero who made this position known in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos recently said that NPA being a service provider was supposed to support the Nigerian Shippers’ Council for the review adding that a look at the NSC’s Act, one was bound to discover that the single act of conferment of the port economic regulator status on NSC by the Presidency, put the Council on a better platform than NPA to carry out the review.
He said,” The problem is that NPA don’t understand their position, the concession was not done by NPA, the concession was done by the BPE and the agency that is supposed to review the concession agreement is Shippers’ Council not NPA. NPA is a service provider, NPA is supposed to support Shippers’ Council for the review because even though you look at the Shippers’ Council Act, you find out that by the virtue of the Presidency giving them economic regulator role put them on a better platform than the NPA.
“NPA is supposed to handle the aspect of dredging and it should concern itself on its responsibility which it is not doing. We have river ports all over the places; none of them has been dredged. For instance, if you go to places like Togo, their draft level is almost close to 16 metres, you go to Benin Republic, their own is almost 16 metres, by next year, Ghana is going to 19 metres, Cameroun is 16 metres, while our own is 12 metres to 13 metres and most of the ports that you have in the east and in the Delta area, they are all river ports. NPA should concentrate on making sure our ports are navigable. Their responsibility is to look at the marine area that is the breakwaters, the channels, the light and the berth and our draught.
“What concerns NPA with going to sign MoU with another Ports Authority? They are no more in cargo operation. Most of what NPA is doing now is not its function, it has to concern itself with its function or else it has to do away with the terminal operators because there is a provision in the Act that empowers the Minister to make pronouncement and the concession is cancelled and no court can overturn it.
“And most of these concessions were renewed without going through the normal procedures. Some concessionaires that their agreement have expired went through the back door to obtain renewal and you have not reassessed the concession according the concession principles where it supposed to be reassessed and the stakeholders supposed to review and look at it and criticize it and interrogate it and they went behind and extend it. So we have lot problems”.
Amiwero who is also the Managing Director of Eyis Resources Limited regretted that the trade component of the country had moved out and was now in the hands of the multinationals even as he averred that a careful look at what was happening in the port would reveal that the multinationals were in charge as Maersk Line for instance is the owner of APMT, Grimaldi is the owner of PTML, Five is owned by Comet and so on.
”Shipping companies are the owners of the terminals and they are smiling to the banks every day”, he said.
He noted that all the legal procedures that had to do with the port which were contained in the Customs and Excise Management Act and the NPA Act were not followed by the concessionaires as they only follow their instincts and do what they felt like doing, increase charges at will and put the country in a very terrible situation.
He continued,” Our cargoes are moving out, more than 60% of our cargoes are out of this country because nobody wants to bring his or her cargo and it spends one or two months at the ports and when it is coming out, the demurrage there is the highest in the whole world. You pay as much as N20,000 per day as demurrage.
“We have lost our transit trade to Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, transshipment we have lost to Togo, Cameroun, Ghana and Benin Republic while we are losing domestic cargo to Chad, Niger and other places that are coming close. So, we have a country that controls 70% to 80% of cargo within the sub region and we have lost all of them because we bring in people who are learners, bringing people who have not seen the ports before to come and manage the port.
“By the provision of the section 32 (a) of the NPA Act, it is very clear that all this things that are creating confusion are supposed to be NPA’s responsibility and for now, the port access roads and navigation within the port area are supposed to be NPA’s responsibility but when NPA negates its responsibilities, that is the problems that we have today. So, you have Shippers’ Council, NPA, shipping companies and the terminal operators must be called and experts brought in to address these issues”.
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