The Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria, MARAN has cautioned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to allow the desire to rejig the national revenue system and jumpstart critical fiscal measures to be compressed into a too tight short term template because of its disruptive reactions.
The President of MARAN, Mr. Godfrey Bivbere who issued this advice in his welcome address during a breakfast meeting held in Lagos on Wednesday by the association with the theme, “Trade Facilitation and President Tinubu’s Economic Agenda: Matters Arising”, observed that whereas, President Tinubu’s administration had drawn up a purposeful recovery blueprint for the economy, some of the administration’s policy direction appeared to have assumed too combative posturing, with an inevitable backlashes resulting in observed disruption in the fiscal and macroeconomic system; while also causing major distortions in the market.
Bivbere maintained that a balancing must be sought, especially in view of the fact that the nation export base was still very weak, making the country largely import dependent.
According to him, “A realistic middle of the way will be the best approach, if also this government makes the genuine effort at reducing its alleged huge spending and administrative overhead costs.”
Speaking on the theme of the breakfast meeting, the MARAN President pointed out that the association recognizef the robust reengineering of customs trade together with its operational tools and improved governance system put in place by the incumbent Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and his hardworking and focused management team and the Nigeria Customs Service uneasy intermediary between government and port traders and in respect of its critical interventions that had attracted a number of reconsiderations and reviews by the relevant departments of government.
“In the light of the above symbiosis, we do not expect anything less than a sincere evaluation since trade facilitation and national development are critical to economic agenda of any administration.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it suffice to state going forward that this breakfast meeting may wish to note the following: That port inefficiency is a factor in trade facilitation. While trade facilitation presupposes the enabling elements in port trade and the cargo clearance value chain, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in 2023 in its report said the Nigerian maritime sector is in crisis, with inference to the country’s ranking at near bottom of the World Bank Ease of Doing Business indicators, in the cumulative prior years of assessment.
“Experts have also said that whereas trade facilitation focuses on effective application of procedures for minimizing cost burdens, by extension, by the same token it is also designed to optimize efficiency while protecting the efficacy of extant regulations and regulatory mandates.”
On Time Release Study, TRS being conducted by the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Mr. Bivbere maintained that it would be very difficult for stakeholders to agree on how long it takes to clear goods from the nation’s ports owing to the absence of a scientifically proven data to determine that even as he declared that that was why the study was commissioned in the first place.
“It is therefore imperative that all stakeholders in the port industry, support this laudable programme to ensure its success. This study is not just for the clearing processes of the Nigeria Customs alone but that of the NDLEA, the Police, the Terminal Operators, the Shipping Lines and everyone connected to the cargo clearing process.
“The forms for the survey can be gotten from the Nigeria Customs office at Tin-can Island Command. I therefore urge all stakeholders present here today and those listening to us since we are streaming this event live on Facebook; to please take their time to get, go through the questionnaires, answer them truthfully and return them back to the management of Tin-can Island Customs Command, so when the results which is expected to be submitted in September is release; we can say authoritatively that goods take XY number of days to be cleared from our ports”, the President begged.
Photo: Mr. Godfrey Bivbere, President, MARAN.
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