Babatunde Keshinro, is the General Manager of Port and Terminal Multipurpose Logistics terminals. In this interview with Anozie Egole, he talked about the various challenges terminal operators are facing. He also talked about customer-related issues.
Industry stakeholders have said that vehicle importation has dropped by about 90%. How true is that?
Well, I cannot confirm or debunk what I do not know the bases. Anybody that says there is 90% decrease in vehicle importation at this period of the year, the first question for me to ask is – what are the bases for this 90%. What I do not know is difficult for me to react to, so it will be a different ball game if whoever made that comment can come out with clear figures and period; then it becomes measurable. I can now assess as to confirm or deny if the figures are correct or validate that. When you say 90%, 90% of cars of what? When you are taking of cars, they are being imported in numbers within a given period. So for us to have a measurement of trend, you must look at period-say a year. Because now we have been able to have what I call three phases in the importation trend of vehicles. The first stage is the pre-automotive policy of 2014 that is, what used to be the Nigerian vehicle importation trap; given the indication of when the private terminal operators commence with the handling of cargoes in the Nigerian seaports. So we are talking about 2006 up till April 2014. Then within that period of the automotive policy life span which is still on-going which runs from 2014 till the beginning of this year when government made a pronouncement restricting entrance of vehicles through the land borders. So in my own view, that is currently another phase which is the phase that we are now. So it is when we are able to analyze the trend and look at it, then we can be able to ascertain a percentage. If somebody says 90%, I cannot confirm or debunk it. So whoever that is saying that must have his reasons. But what I can say is that the first period I have defined which was pre-2014, vehicle importation was on a very good level that I would say that the vehicles coming in was close to 30,000 units per month. For our own sides, we used to have between 17,000 and 18, 000 units monthly. Within the period of this second phase of the active period of the automotive policy, of course the volume went down from May 2014 to January 2017, we recorded less than 5, 000 units. For a terminal that was doing from 15, 000 upwards now doing less than 5, 000 units. But from February 2017 we started seeing a kind of pick-up but not at the level of pre-2014. So if you ask me I would say that the volumes have started picking up but not yet at the capacity of the level that we used to know, but it is better than then when we were in recession. You can now extend it to what kind of cargo mix do we have. This is where the Forex and the capacity of people to buy comes in, their affordability. It now makes us to see more of damaged or accident cars unlike before. That is how I can react to that.
Do you support the recent withdrawal of service by truckers and customs agents?
I am surprised that people are saying that the action was because of extortions by terminal operators and shipping lines. What I knew was that the action was related to bad assess roads, the next issue they mentioned was the multiplicity of customs units outside the ports that causes problem for them after clearing goods in the ports and on your way to go out you will contend with multiple customs units. But be that as it may, withdrawal of service for what it represents is a pressure group weapon to get the attention of the government or the appropriate party to whatever issues of concern they have. And I felt that was why they withdrew their services to draw the attention of the government to the challenge they face in assessing the ports and being able to do their work effectively in a manner that it should be done. Already the government is beginning to understand the issue and I want to hope that the government is taking practical efforts to solve the problem. Even without the action, it is very obvious for anybody going to Apapa or Tin Can ports that the ports access roads are in serious critical conditions.
What do you have to say about the request for waiver of demurrage for the number of days that the withdrawal of services lasted?
I think we need to get certain things cleared; there was never a disruption of ports operations as it concerns ships coming to Nigeria to discharge and to load cargoes because dockworkers never withdrew their services. So the ports were actually working all through this period. This is how ports operations are; there are the ship side operations which concerns the movement of vessels along the ports areas for ships to perform their own activities within the ports. Then the next has to do with the customs clearance of cargoes and its delivery. The action affected what we call the landside operations of taking the cargoes out of the ports. It is a different ball game and it has to do with cargo. The good thing you need to know is that the action was not against the terminal operators in the ports, it was not against the shipping lines, it was to call the attention of the government. So it was between the clearing agents, freight forwarder, truckers and government. So that has nothing to do with ship owners and demurrage. So these are two layers of what I call business interaction. The clearing agents are saying that they want to work for the benefit of their customers out of what we call life safety or what I call life and property safety which has to do with the vehicles used in conveying the goods and equally the security. Because when the roads are bad, there will be attacks. So waiver of demurrage becomes what the provider of service will say is a discretional thing as far as services is concerned.
Do you think that the Forex scarcity has effect on the volume of car importations into the country?
There is difference between sources of fund and the impact of Forex in the Nigerian importation scheme. We are import-depended economy and the goods we are importing have to be paid with foreign currency. How do we generate the foreign currency, we can only assess that by going to the dealer banks en-route the CBN. But one thing we need to recognize is that the change in the exchange rate of the Nigerian Naira to foreign currencies actually affected the volume of trade that an average importer can order. Because at the end of the day their wealth is in Naira and if the capacity they have, by virtue of the capacity of their trading fund, they used to order for some numbers of cargoes. It will reduce the volume of cargoes coming in, if you go around the ports the comments we receive from our importers is that it is affecting them.
We have noticed that most vehicles coming into the country are damaged cars, what would you say is the cause?
Basically is the issue of affordability and capacity. One golden rule which is what I have always talked about when it comes to transportation needs of Nigerians is, routes that is available which is roads and how Nigerians can go about financing their personal and group needs when it comes to vehicles. It is the issue of affordability basically and if things were better than this we will all see that Nigerian importers will bring in good vehicles for their customers. But if the customers are not ready to buy the very top grade that they used to bring naturally, they will not like to run out of business. So they have to device another strategy; which is to buy cheap accident cars at a reasonable price that Nigerians can afford, come and add value to it by repairing it to a better condition before putting it in the market that Nigerians can buy. It is a simple demand and affordability issue. Nobody does a business on sentimental basis it is on basis of profit motive.
There are allegations of car vandalism at PTML terminal, what do you have to say about that?
Give me the evidence, any time people come to ask this question I normally tell them to provide evidence. When you are in this kind of operation I tell you and I say it with every sense of modesty that within the last few days we have discharge over 7, 000 units of vehicles. The most important thing this terminal as a service provider has done is to provide the necessary requirements not just personnel, but also in terms of equipment, CCTV and the necessary training to handle these equipment and the essence is to be able to provide reliable and good services to our customers. A terminal operator which is claiming to be the dominant terminal in Nigeria, what do you have to sell? Goods are coming and they are getting damaged – does that represent the service. We are proud of this and I can say it with every sense of responsibility, I am very proud of what PTML has done in this country, I am very proud of the way we are handling vehicles. Of course some of these vehicles were purchased as damaged vehicles. But you see, some of the customers who were not there when the vehicles were purchased will be claiming that the shipping company has damaged the vehicles. Of what use will it be to a service provider taking a service that you can not deliver. So if there are records of vandalism or damage, bring the records. Telling us the bill of lading number, this is the vehicles, this was the condition of the vehicle when it was purchased, this was the condition of the vehicle when it was loaded on board, this was the condition when it was discharged from the vessel, this was the condition of the vehicle when it was still with the terminal and this was the condition of the vehicle when it was given to the customer. For us as terminal operators, the conditions of the vehicles are checked right from the point of purchase to receiving, that is when it is discharged from the vessel. So if you are here in Nigeria and you do not know the condition of the vehicle when it was purchased and you are complaining of how it was given to you, of course like every other thing, there are cases of damages of vehicles and we are very quick in attending to that in protecting our customers.
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