The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has issued March 21st 2016 deadline for all truck owners to standardize their trucks or be barred from doing business at the ports. The man at the centre of the implementation; Chief Michael Kayode Ajayi, General Manager Western Ports of NPA last week had an exclusive interview with Shipping Position Daily’s Dapo Olawuni. He spoke on why the truckers have been kicking against the implementation and why NPA introduced it.
“if you divide N10,000 by three hundred and sixty five days, it will give you about N27 per entry, is N27 too much for someone that is making between N80,000 to N200,000 on a business per trip?”
You held a meeting with a group of truck owners today, what was it about?
We held a meeting with the independent fleet owners, not the AMARTO or JCOST or whatever, we held meetings with the independent fleet owners and the meeting was successful. They also have an association and their leadership met with me this morning and they have declared their support for Nigerian Ports Authority in its standardization exercise.
How feasible is March 21st deadline for truck standardization by NPA?
The date is very feasible; it did not work out back then because we had not perfected our strategies of implementation. But now that we have done that, we are going all out to hit the nail on the head, it is feasible and realizable.
Are you aware of conglomerates planning to take over the trucking business?
I am not aware of it, but it is a welcomed development, the companies don’t need to approach the NPA, once they import or bought their vehicles and it is dully registered and certified to do business in Nigerian Ports Authority, they will go in and do their business. All we are saying is that if you are coming into our ports to do business, your trucks must be sound, because the cargo you are carrying is very expensive.
So far, you have registered 1,500 trucks, but the truckers claim this is still inadequate for port operations.
If they have any evidence, let them come and show it. The point is that the truckers make a lot of money from carriage of consignments and they cannot invest part of their profit on their trucks and this is their major problem. I don’t know the kind of advice I should give to them, if you have something that fetches you income; the normal thing for you to do is to service that thing so that it can live long. Most of them take a 40-ft container for between N80,000 to N100, 000, some of them collect N150, 000 while some collect N200,000 depending on the distance. A fraction of this money should be ploughed into the business to strengthen it and make it strong enough to also fetch another round of money, but when you are not doing this and you eat everything, this is when you will find yourself in this kind of quagmire.
It appears that the N10,000 standardization fee is the major problem
You are talking of the amount, N10,000, this money is just for one year and for multiple entries, is that too much? Certainly not, if you divide N10,000 by 365 days, it will give you about N27 per entry, is N27 too much for someone that is making between N80,000 to N200,000 on a business per trip? It is the cheapest anywhere in the world, it is only a person that is mischievous that would be fighting against such a thing. If you are passing through FAAN territory with your SUV car, you will pay N400, this is not even a truck, when you are coming back again through that place you will pay another N400 making it N800, so if you pass through that place as many times as possible you will still pay the same amount. If you go to NAHCO shed in the airport to pick a consignment, you will still pay your entry permit, so it is not something new, but here we just have a group of recalcitrant individuals who feel that they want to enter the port and do business free of charge, they have been doing that for two years and we are saying that this is enough.
Apart from these, the Nigerian Ports Authority needs money to improve its infrastructures which these rickety trucks destroy on daily basis, and the same truckers will come and accuse us of negligence; that we have failed to maintain our infrastructures which they have destroyed. We just have to call a spade a spade, to ensure that they pay, so that we can get money to improve our roads, our infrastructures and which is also going to be for their own benefit and for the general public.
What palliatives are you putting in place to enable the truckers acquire new trucks?
On what basis; AMARTO, NARTO or whatever, all of them are private businesses, if the associations are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission they are capable of going to Nigerian banks, or to Bank of Industry as a body, if they have adequate collateral they will obtain loans. NPA is in business, so why would NPA want to stand as collateral for them? Why would NPA want to go to the bank to help them borrow money? They are the ones that have expressed interest in doing business in our ports, so these bodies should come together and go to form a cooperative society, they should approach a Nigerian bank or the Bank of Industry (BOI) and borrow money. We have seen examples of such in the BRT scheme in Lagos, we saw a group of people coming together and approached the bank to get money, even the taxi drivers, the yellow cabs and the red cabs also did it and they are paying back, it was successful, here we are and the truckers are not even ready to pay N27 per day, and you think they will pull themselves together to go to any bank? Are they united as a team to do that? They are not, so for any bank to give you money, you must have serious collateral, and as far as NPA is concerned we are not into that business.
We hope there would not be shortage of trucks to operate inside the port after the deadline expires
You will see the trucks working, we have been registering trucks since we started, on daily basis we have been updating our data, Dangote alone has about 5000 trucks, they have just sent in a list of 1000 out of it, Floor Mills has about 900, some of the others have 50, some have 100 that have queued in and registered. We cannot because of a few groups that are stubborn and say that we are not going to implement our policy, do you want us now to start refunding the money they have paid that has gone to the TSA? It is not possible, so it is in their interest to key in.
Is there a possibility of further extension in the date? And why was it extended before?
It is not possible for us to extend again, we extended it before, because they requested for it, they made a plea that it would enable them put their trucks in order and we had no objection, if that would enable them conform, the Managing Director graciously approved the extension, because our objective is to make them comply, that you will enter Nigerian Ports Authority and you don’t pay for doing business there, that era is gone, and if we reduce the amount to N5000, this means they will be paying N16 per entry and it is ridiculous.
Since NPA has concessioned the port, is it proper to collect the money?
NPA is still the landlord, and what does a landlord do, they charge rent, when you are entering the terminals you cannot fly in the air, you will still pass through NPA road to get to the terminal operators’ premises, what the truckers are saying is a logic that does not make sense and is not derived from a reasonable premise.
The fear of the truckers is that NPA will end up pushing them out of business….
Is it not better to push the rickety trucks out of the roads than to risk millions of lives on the road, some people were killed at Ojuelegba last year; just like that.
Discussion about this post