Days after the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said it had concluded its concession review exercise and lease renewal process with seaport and terminal operators, stakeholders in the nation’s maritime sector have faulted the agency, even as they accused the agency of not involving stakeholders in the process.
The stakeholders who said this in separate interviews with Shipping Position Daily in Apapa last week, said that the first agreement was signed in a hurry which gave room for the numerous anomalies happening in the sector.
The president of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Increase Uche, said that he is seeing another mistake in the making with the renewal, even as he added that the first agreement was a shoddy process which did not meet international standard.
He added that while took port of Antwerp 50 years to be concessioned, Nigeria hurriedly did her own under three years, thereby causing a lot of mistakes which have given rise to the various problems being encountered in the ports.
Uche explained that the criteria for the contract renewal should have been published and stakeholders would have been informed about it.
According to him, “for NPA to now come back again to carry out the renewals in a hurry, as at two years ago, we were aware of the arrangement to review the ports concession agreement in which we were hoping to be part of the review process, all of a sudden now the whole thing that manifested now is that the terminals are to be renewed”.
He reiterated that the stakeholders would have been allowed to evaluate the performances of the concessionaires before giving them pass mark.
Uche said from what the agency has just done they are trying to perfect their mistakes even as he said that the process is shrouded in secrecy.
“Let me not just press the panic button, but on the whole, I may not say there is no transparency in the whole thing, but the process again seems to be shrouded in secrecy like what happened before” he said.
The NAGAFF boss said that part of the condition for the renewal of the agreement would have been for them to abide by the new order of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) as the nation’s economic regulator.
“I remember that there is a case in the court concerning arbitrary charges by some of these terminal operators which Shippers Council won in the court. Part of the condition for the renewal of the concession agreement would have been for them to abide in the new order because we now have an economic regulator that they should listen to”
“But for them to be playing the disobedient child approach to the whole thing, we the stakeholders may not be so comfortable with the new arrangement until we understand the condition of which there individual concession agreement were renewed”, he concluded.
Also speaking, a stakeholder, Dr. Eugene Nweke said that the ports concession agreement review and renewal is a function of the performance and actualization of the government’s aims and objective even as he urged the agency to revisit the yearly performance re-evaluation of the concessionaires.
“Notwithstanding, Focus should be on the actualization of the Government aims and objectives of concessioning our ports. This includes but limited to, port efficiency, boost port competitions, reduced imports clearing cost and making the port business friendly, boost port patronage, thereby, reducing cargo diversion to the neighboring countries and save government running costs”, he said.
In his reaction, the president of the National Association of Master Mariners (NAMM), Captain Tajudeen Alao said that the terminal operators are doing well, even as he charged the NPA to come up with improved agreement.
A maritime Lawyer Mr. Emmanuel Nwagbara, opined that port concession issue is a serious economic issue and as such, critical stakeholders must be carried along, unlike what happened at the inception of the ports concessioning.
“We have always taken the position that this time around, there are broad issues that cut on the very nerve of the maritime business in Nigeria and which affects the interest of all stakeholders, the freight forwarders, customs brokers, importers, maritime lawyers and the shipping community generally. And that when issues of ports concessioning are being revisited by way of renewal, a broad consultation has to take place. This has not happened and it is not good for the maritime industry, stakeholders were not carried along”, he concluded.
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