“Without Ships, we are only pretending to be a maritime Nation”-Hassan Bello

Mr. Rotimi Amaechi. Transport Minister

“The high cost of operation has made it difficult for Nigeria to compete with other neighbouring countries-Gbemi Saraki

“Over 95% of the cargoes coming into the Ports are taken through trucks and that is not efficient….Hadiza Bala Usman

And the lamentations keep reechoeing.

What needs to be done?

According to the executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, “Each time we need information and ideas on issues and developments at the Council, we just reach for files. If we want more information we just put a call through to our former executives and we are done”

There is no issue on efficient sea port operations, cargo management, shipping charges, maritime administration, dispute resolution, transportation, maritime education and training-you name it that has not been discussed at one maritime fora or another in the last one decade.

All that needs to be said has been said. Reports have been written and rewritten.

Are the reports read? Are recommendations followed? What about implementation?

Is the Cargo Tracking Note, CTN, Professional Operating Fee, POF added to the variegated myriad of fees and charges in the ports the missing incentives needed to make Nigerian ports more attractive and competitive?

In the abundance of water Nigerians are thirsty.

Regrettably, personal considerations takes precedence over the general good. While a few individuals struggle to make the system work better and reduce suffering in the land, their voices and efforts are drowned by the vociferous push by well knitted syndicates who must have their way or ruin further our polluted environment in which daily survival takes sweat, bruises and pains which are alien to citizens of other countries where CTN is no issue.

Notwithstanding the considerable number of knowledgeable Nigerian men and women, experts and technocrats who are global consultants on maritime related issues around the world, it is very embarrassing, to say the least, that the Nigerian Maritime Industry is the way it is.

What do we not know? What have we not seen?

Will CTN and POF lead to the successful implementation of 24 hour port operations? How does it help in the Ease of Doing Business, EoDB?

We fail to plan. We plan to fail. While we are yet to link the Lagos ports to ongoing rail track construction, while cargo evacuation remain a big challenge, while traffic management/control is mired in controversies and accusations, while unemployment, inflation, dilapidated infrastructure not to mention insecurity and cargo diversion have not been resolved, how does the re-introduction of CTN and POF translate to making Nigerian ports the preferred ports in the West African Sub region?

The competition for revenue between government agencies on the one hand and private operators on the other is a major factor why the hub status has eluded Nigeria.

Additional levies by any guise imposed is definitely not the route to economic transformation of the maritime sector.

Last year, the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, declared a revenue of N1.3 trillion. The Customs Area Controllers, CACs of Apapa and Tin Can Commands of the Service collected N413b and N346.5b respectively.

Both Controllers complained of the challenges and difficulties posed by the Apapa gridlock and other infrastructural hiccups. Given a saner environment, they expressed confidence that their revenues could have been better.

Interestingly and worrisome too, none of them mentioned CTN and POF in their end of 2019 reports. What does this imply?

The proponents of the POF have advanced reasons why the POF has to be collected. Figures ranging from N4/N5b have been stated as revenue to be made from the ports through the POF.

The money, we are told, will be used for the training of freight forwarders, expose them to international best practices and enable them occupy a place of reckoning in the international freight forwarding community.

How many jobs it will create and reduce the Global Poverty Identity, GPI, stigmatizing Nigerians no one has talked about.

To the best of my knowledge, Nigerian freight forwarders are not illiterates. They consist of men and women who are well travelled/schooled not just in the business of freight forwarding, but in other professions such as law, banking and finance, economics, transportation, physics, politics and many more.

Hadiza Bala Usman, MD, NPA

When there is money to be made, reasons are advanced and the pursuit of such enterprise, coming on the heels of lobbying in high and low places and having been endorsed by leadership of the frontline clearing associations is not likely to fail but the value added to the industry should be of concern to stakeholders.

The additional burden on the average Nigerian, who is going to bear this cost should also be considered.

Nigerians are weighed down by the load they are made to bear on behalf of government at all levels.

As we collect the levies, let the collectors be mindful of the man who is continuously made poorer by each additional fee in the ports and the fringes to which he is being pushed.

In a radio programme on Traffic Radio monitored in Lagos, President of the Nigerian Institute of Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers (NIFFCB) Dr. Zebulon Ikhokide insists that POF is not of Import/Export documentation. He adds that he cannot practice what he does not teach.

Public relations officer of the African Association of Professional Freight Forwarder and Logistics of Nigeria, APFLON, Mr. Rasag Giwa, said you cannot do the wrong thing for the wrong reasons and expect progress.

The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN, has revealed that of the N5b expected from the POF, 25 per cent of the money would go to the federal government for nation building, 20 per cent to SW Global, the technical partner on POF collection, 35% to the Council and the rest to the registered clearing associations.

Chief Remi Ogungbemi said the CRFFN was established to regulate the industry and not to collect revenue. He is of the view that CRFFN should find ways to add value to the industry before thinking of how to make money from it.

On CTN, POF and unheeded calls for the reduction if not complete removal of some fees in the ports, Nigerians stand divided and separated on the need to or not.

Even as Nigerians continue to soldier on, weathering the difficult business terrain, the task before leaders is to make the economic landscape move even and easier to navigate.

Adding hurdles to the numerous mountains operators have to climb could be counterproductive.

Decades back, former military head of state, General Yakubu Gowon is quoted to have said “The problem of Nigeria is not money but how to spend it”

On deeper reflection, I cannot but agree with him.