Most maritime industry stakeholders will justifiably align with stakeholders in other sectors of the Nigerian economy to write-off 2020 as the worst year ever!
Perhaps, they are right. Our industry faced serious bashing in 2020 on account of three main issues, namely: the COVID-19 pandemic, the #EndSARS protest that turned violent after it was hijacked by hoodlums. Finally, the industry (especially importers, exporters and their freight forwarders) paid the highest cost ever for haulage of containers, it got to as high as N1.8Million from Tin Can port to nearby Festac Town!
Sadly, COVID-19 is still with us, while the traffic chaos which escalated haulage cost won’t go away anytime soon.
At the risk of sounding alarmist and pessimistic, we ‘prophesy’ that in 2021, the Apapa traffic problem is not likely to go away. We say this, being conscious of the fact that illegal businesses have sprung up, especially along the Mile 2-Tin Can port corridor. Those currently benefitting from the chaos are: okada riders and soldiers who levy them for daily passage. Another set of beneficiaries of the chaos called Apapa traffic are members of the various unions and task forces on that route.
We are also aware of the promise made by the Nigerian Ports Authority that electronic call-up system will come on stream in January, but all these ‘vampires’ who want to continue sucking the blood of their victims, even in 2021 are likely to frustrate the new system.
In 2020, the industry witnessed a novel inter-agency collaboration, whereby CEOs of NIMASA, NPA, NSC, CRFFN and NIWA hosted meetings where they rubbed minds on issues of collaboration, rather than conflicts. This has started yielding results and we can only say here that, all eyes are on them!
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA)
By December 2020, the association’s National Executive Committee (NECOM) further stoked the fire of crises which have engulfed it since the emergence of the current leadership. In Owerri, Imo state, it organised elections into the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the association.
This has further fanned the anger and division in the association. There may still be two claimants to the chairmanship of the ANLCA BoT, between Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha and whoever eventually emerges from the controversial elections of December 2020, which produced nine BoT members.
With several court cases and now, two parallel board members, 2021 can only further turn ANLCA to a laughing stock. The end to the crisis in the association is far beyond this year, but we hope we are wrong!
The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN)
Like every member of the maritime community, we had high hopes that the CRFFN would live up to its name as the regulator of freight forwarding in Nigeria. But this has not been so; the Council has been entangled in different crises since its enabling Act was enacted.
Without fear of being contradicted, one can say that, since its creation, the CRFFN has not enjoyed peace. At different times, it has had to contend with freight forwarding associations and individual freight forwarders; it has also had to contend with Government and its functionaries. It has been bruised and beaten severally by its own people.
When the incumbent Registrar/CEO; Barrister Samuel Nwakohu and a new governing council emerged, industry watchers had thought that the journey to redemption had commenced for the embattled CRFFN, but we were all wrong.
In 2020, the governing council and the Registrar struggled unsuccessfully to commence collection of the lifeline called ‘Practitioners Operations Fees’ (POF). The Council was also torn into factions by the moves by some interest to amend its enabling Act.
Members of the governing council were banking on the amendment to secure an alleged extension of their statutory two-year tenure. But this didn’t materialize.
The twin factors of the failed tenure elongation plot, coupled with the painful loss of the governing council members, as well as the controversial POF which the CRFFN is still hoping to collect will hunt the Council in 2021.
The Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA)
By its name and by virtue of its statutory responsibilities, the NPA will always be an agency to watch.
But, the attack on its corporate head office during last year’s EndSARS protest and issues surrounding the destruction put the agency in the frontline as it tries to rebuild the burnt structure and replaces the burnt vehicles. Questions have been asked about the actual cost of all that NPA needs to do and about the insurance claims.
The NPA will also be watched very closely in 2021 because of the chaotic traffic situation, especially in the twin approaches to Lagos ports.
Its managing director has promised that electronic call-up would be introduced in January, we pray this happens and we also pray it solves the problem of haulage into and out of Lagos ports.
The huge cost of trucking out of Lagos ports in 2020 became an embarrassment to Nigeria, when a foreign medium escalated the known fact that it costs more to truck a container from Tin Can port to any part of Lagos, than transporting same from China to Lagos.
Apart from the e call-up, NPA will need to enforce ownership and operation of container holding bays by shipping companies.
The Nigerian maritime industry will eagerly look up to the NPA to ease traffic in and out of the ports and by extension, Apapa in 2021.
Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA)
Arguably, piracy within Nigerian’s territorial waters and within the Gulf of Guinea in 2020 reached an unprecedented crescendo. Pirates brazenly operated even during the Yuletide and up to the end of the year.
This is the greatest burden of NIMASA, which it has been unable to find solution to, even with its collaboration with the Navy. Without doubt, this will continue to hunt the agency in 2021.
Beyond the issue of piracy, the plethora of unfulfilled promises both of 2020 and the previous years will draw attention to NIMASA this year.
One of such promises for which the agency would be held accountable, is the Floating Dock. The NIMASA DG; Dr Bashir Jamoh had in 2020 promised that the craft would be moved to NPA shipyard in Apapa from where it would be put to use by employing about 350 staff and generating revenue into the coffers of government.
He may need to be reminded that in June 2020, he said: “Apart from the N1 billion naira monthly the floating dock will generate, we are expecting up to 350 staff engagement and these are the main workers.
Another sore point for NIMASA is the non-disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF), the jinx which the DG also promised to break last year.
Again, as with the floating dock, Jamoh assured in June last year that, before October, the first set of beneficiaries would have received the fund. This also didn’t materialize.
By his admission he said: “I have been appointed the chairman of the CVFF Disbursement Committee by the Minister of Transportation. We are working to disburse the CVFF, maybe before October, we hope to be able to disburse the first leg of the fund to beneficiaries.”
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