The Managing Partner, Maritime and Commercial Law Partners, Barr. Osuala Emmanuel Nwagbala has said that for the National Single Window project to succeed in Nigeria, there is need for an effective and efficient power supply otherwise it will end up in the realm of dreams.
Nwagbara who stated this in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos recently noted that power was still a very big issue I Nigeria adding that one cannot talk effectively about the Single Window technology without constant power supply.
“Recently, one of the foreigners that addressed us at the Nigerian Bar Association conference said that without power, we don’t have a country and I believe that. You will see that power is still a very big issue and we cannot talk effectively about Single Window without constant power.
“So, to that extent, that policy, good and laudable as it is, for the Single Window technology to succeed, we need power to power it”, he explained.
He recalled that there was a pilot project on the National Single Window which was managed by Webb Fontaine which at a point was also cancelled and was taken over by the Nigeria Customs Service which according to him, they were still managing till date.
While stressing that the experiment on the Single Window project should be a continuous one, he therefore harped that the service should continue to fine tune it until it gets a holistic one where every player in the maritime industry should be able to view and have some information on the activities of agencies and everyone that is connected with the maritime sector even private companies like banks, shipping companies and terminal operators.
“We have not gotten to that yet. So, I think it is a kind of Single Window technology that we are all yearning about but then do we have the necessary infrastructure that can make that work? This is the big question which is why we have to march each policy with factors that would aid or militate against it”.
On why Nigeria was still struggling with the National Single Window project when Ghana that copied the project from Nigeria had gone ahead of it, he stated,” It is not the first time that we start a project and other countries come to copy that project and they excel. Of course, you know very well about the Malaysian government that came to Nigeria to take some palm fruits and today, Malaysia is exporting palm oil even to Nigeria. It is not the first time that we are seeing this, so, that is why we have to look at the factors that will aid or militate against a project or a policy to see how progressive we are along the line of implementation.
“In Ghana today, they have celebrated uninterrupted power supply for a good number of years and it is not surprising that they would come to Nigeria and copy the Single Window system and have it functioning effectively in their country. We need power to be a country as far as technology is concerned because we are not yet there”.
Speaking on the 24 hour port operation policy of the federal government, he said,” Looking at the 24 hour port operation in Nigeria, again you have to look at what the surrounding factors are that can make it work or fail. We don’t have adequate security in Nigeria; there will be no successful 24 hour port operation in Nigeria without adequate security. We hear every day of containers leaving the ports and not getting to their destinations. Why is it so? It is because we don’t have effective surveillance system. In countries where you have 24 hour port operation, you have cameras mounted everywhere so that you can at short notice track your truck, you will be able to have information online.
“So, security is a very big issue as far as 24 hour port operation is concerned and without adequate security, it will still be a pipe dream”.
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