It was the Chairman of Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN); Princess Vicky Haastrup who first raised alarm that cargo importation into Nigeria has reduced drastically owing to the current economic downturn occasioned by some perceived unfriendly policies of the Federal Government.
Haastrup, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of ENL Terminal in Apapa port, however expressed support for the current flexible forex policy of the CBN, saying it would make the Naira to regain its balance and find its true value
While lamenting the drop in vessel call cargo throughput at the port, she urged the CBN to revisit the issue of restriction of the 42 items from accessing forex. She pleaded with the government to revisit those items because the manufacturers of goods in Nigeria are also suffering as a result of this ban because some of these items are some of the things they need for production in their various factories. It is also destabilising the importers of goods to Nigeria. The economic activities are being affected seriously.
Princess Haastrup’s fears were later reinforced by the Comptroller General of Customs; Col Hameed Ali (rtd), when he also raised alarm that the Service is no longer meeting its revenue target.
Col Ali made the disclosure when he paid a courtesy visit to the District Head of Gwadabawa, Sokoto State, Alhaji Lawal Zayyana.
Admitting that it could be worse, Col Alli added that: “With this trend, there is no way we can, by any chance, meet our target. We are hoping and praying that with the release of the budget and with the now-relaxed forex market, traders will begin to pick up and import things. If things do not improve, certainly, we are in big problem”.
Apparently because he is a government appointee, the Customs CG couldn’t attribute the fall in revenue to unfavourable government policies. Rather, he said the fall was as a result of the low domestic and international trade, as well as the country’s dwindling foreign reserve.
And last penultimate Friday, the then-managing director of Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA); Malam Habib Abdulahi disclosed that Nigerian ports Lost 11.5% vessel calls in q1, 2016
Abdullahi said that generally, the level of operational activities at the ports in the first quarter of 2016 dropped significantly when compared with the same period of 2015.
In the first quarter of 2016, a total of 1,131 ocean-going vessels and crude oil tankers with a total Gross Tonnage (GT) of 59.4 million called at Nigerian ports.
While the NPA is looking at return to export, the Nigeria Customs Service is hoping that the recent increase in exchange rate for the purpose of duty collection will help boost revenue for its revenue.
We are more concerned that the CG of Customs will record such a failure and still want to explain it away as caused by CBN forex policy.
Now that the same CBN has increased exchange rate for duty payment toN282 to One Dollar, maybe customs revenue will soar. But we very much doubt it.
Two things are still wrong with the Customs Service; top among which is the appointment Col Ali as its CG. The service is a revenue collecting agency that requires an experienced Customs officer. We do not believe that Customs lacks honest men to assume the position of CG. The second issue is that Col Alli has not instilled any discipline in the Service since he was appointed.
With all the noise about wanting to curb corruption, we are surprised that not one scape goat has been caught.
We subscribe to those who have posited that the 41 items that were banned from accessing forex contributed to the current woes in the ports. Going by what Muda Yusuf, president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), at a recent event in Lagos, the policy will affect about 728 lines of businesses.
While we agree that the items were only banned from accessing forex from official quarters and not on import prohibition, but we also know that accessing forex from the black market is not the way out for any profit-minded business enterprise.
Rather than approach NEPC for collaboration on exports, the NPA, Customs and other revenue collecting agencies; including the FIRS should facilitate a second look at the 41 items that have been banned from accessing forex from official quarters.
Government should take a second look at the boss of LCCI said concerning some 12 items for which Nigeria does not have an alternative.
“We don’t subscribe to importing toothpick, tomato paste and all of that, but there are key manufacturing items we are looking at.
“Out of the 41, we brought about 12 items to them that we don’t have the capacity to meet this. For example, everybody knows that Nigerian is rich in palm oil, but the local demand capacity is 1,800 metric tonnes per annum”.
Similarly, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, former World Bank vice president and former Minister in Nigeria has also called on the CBN to take of the “fetters” put on the 41 items and allow the market to fully function.
The policy kicked off on June 23, 2015; which means that its more than one year, and the effect is still been felt by all revenue collecting agencies in the ports.
If it was meant to firm up the Naira against other currencies; especially Euro and Dollar, this has not been achieved. If it is to reduce pressure on the official forex market, this has also not been achieved, as can be seen from the pressure on Naira and the CBN.
Unknown to the Government and the CBD, its policy of restricting accessibility to forex by some items is killing the economy. If the ports have lost about 12% of its cargo throughput in just one year of the policy and the Customs has also lost 50% of its revenue, certainly the terminal operators cannot be smiling to the banks.
If government’s reason is actually to protect its forex reserves, what further reason does it have now that the Naira has been allowed to float?
We also strongly believe that the export promotion drive of the then-managing director of NPA; Malam Habib Abdulahi should not be discountenanced. Even though coming too late and even though not the duty of the NPA, it is still a welcome development.
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