…Calls for Marine and Blue Economy blueprint with clear timelines for Nigeria
The founder, Skynet Trueway International Limited, Mr. Moses Olayemi Fadipe has said that contrary to position held in some quarters, Nigeria has the best vessel boarding and rummaging procedure in the world.
Fadipe who disclosed this in his opening remarks at the Breakfast Meeting organized by the Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria, MARAN in Lagos on Wednesday with the theme, “Trade Facilitation and President Tinubu’s Economic Agenda: Matters Arising”, hinted that following this development, Nigeria got an award in Switzerland as the best country in that space in 2022.
The MARAN President, Mr. Godfrey Bivbere, had in his welcome address stated, “We in MARAN found it a bit disturbing, a recent rating of port efficiency tabulation where Togo topped the subregion in areas of modernization, efficient port trade cost, vessels turnaround time, among other variables.
“MARAN is concerned that while Nigeria boast of very large port system with huge import inflow, a sizeable chunk of this cargo is diverted to neighbouring ports owing to their efficient services; while the same cargo find their way back to Nigeria, often via smuggling.”
Responding, Mr. Fadipe who doubles as the Chairman of the event observed that Nigeria was not doing too badly in these areas saying, “You can see the level of automation that we have in the country today compared to about three, four, five years ago. And to shock the audience, in terms of vessel boarding and rummaging, from 2021 up to December 2023, we have not done the rating for 2024, Nigeria has the best vessel boarding and rummaging procedure in the world. And towards this end, the Nigerian government, in 2022 got an award in Switzerland as the best country in that space.
“Before, a vessel coming here, when you say you are going to Nigeria, the Captain will be requesting for $150,000 for him to come in and go out of Nigeria as gratification for public officials. But today, it has reduced to $20,000, not that we have eradicated it. It’s a milestone and countries like Egypt, Argentina, Bangladesh and Ghana, our neighbour, are looking for ways to adopt that our process on boarding of vessels.
“Why am I saying this? There’s a document from the Nigerian Ports Authority which is called the Nigerian Port Process Manual. It’s about trajectory of activities within the port system. Are we complying with this? It is because there is maximum compliance onboard the vessel because they are foreigners that gave us that milestone. But when it comes to the terminals, up to the hinterlands, to the corridors, it’s a different ball game.”
Insisting that trade facilitation rests on four pillars namely: transparency, simplification of processes, harmonization of processes and standardization of processes, he added, “All these, I will say we have policies that addressed them but the big question we should be asking ourselves, all stakeholders whether in public or private sector is do we really adhere to all this tenets that we have talked about? If we have not, what are the issues. Then how efficient and predictable are our processes in the port industry? Do we have a national marine blueprint with clear cut structured timelines? Do we follow it religiously?
“What about the political interest of the country? Are the political interests there? These the questions we should be answering in this programme today. But the basic thing I will say is how do we foster efficiency of our marine sector through compliance? And how best are we developing indigenous shipping in this country to be able to foster competitiveness?
“A lot of policies have been put in place from time to time but I will quickly want to refer to the CBI and MACN’s scientific study on port efficiency in Nigeria. I am taking this particular one because currently I work for CBI and MACN as a consultant in the Marine space, from Nigeria up to West and Central Africa and we have seen the narratives, how it goes from here up to Central Africa.
“Port efficiency is a function of the following: transparency in terms of business activities, whether import or export, consistency in terms of application of rules that guides the industry. How consistent are we? A whole lot of time, we allow discretionary powers to be the order of the day. What about predictability in terms of cost before even your importation? Because this is a factor that determines the cost of doing business, it’s not believable in this part of the world and improve compliance will definitely reduce corruption or act of corrupt practices.”
Noting that everybody was happy that Nigeria now have the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, he submitted, “Nigeria at this point in time needs a marine and blue economy blueprint with clear timelines because we are not at the wrong side of the ocean.”
Photo: Mr. Moses Olayemi Fadipe, Founder, Skynet Trueway International Limited.
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