Last week, this newspaper reported a cheering news about the decline in sharp practices Nigerian ports. The report was from Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN), in its latest report on corruption in the nation’s seaports.
The Network, in that report, revealed that Nigeria has transformed from being a global hotspot for maritime corruption, to an international success story, with reported cases of large, unregistered cash demands by officials falling dramatically from 266 in 2019 to just 30 in 2024.
According to MACN, the positive development has prompted countries such as Egypt, India, Ghana, and Senegal to study Nigeria’s anti-corruption model.
The report went further that the introduction of standard operating procedures, the Nigeria Port Process Manual, and enforcement by the Port Security Task Team (PSTT) in collaboration with government agencies such as the NPA, DSS and ICPC, led to a steady decline in cases such as 128 in 2020, 84 in 2021, 48 in 2022, 45 in 2023, and 30 last year.
The report is an affirmation that Nigerian ports are on the right part to becoming a haven for best practices. This is especially when juxtaposed with s similar report from the same MACN in 2024, which was damming.
The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network had in 2024, highlighted severe financial and operational impacts of corruption at Nigeria’s ports, a report that was widely hailed by industry stakeholders.
The Nigerian port system comprises of a web of suppliers and users of shipping services on one side and suppliers and users of ancillary services on the other.
Spread across this winding and complex web are players such as: personnel of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigeria Customs Service and its service providers, terminal operators, shipping agents, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, importers (big and small), licensed customs agents, dockworkers, truck owners, drivers and motor boys, and many others.
It is difficult to ascertain the identity of those who perpetuate or initiate fraud in the port system, because the chain of importation is long; hence it can only be situated within the chain; that is, from the point an importer opens his ‘Letter of Credit’ to when the goods are actually procured and, packaged and freighted into Nigeria as an import and up to the point at which it is cleared from the port and delivered to the consignee.
In analysing the phenomenon called corruption in the port system, a lot of people tend to pin it down on stakeholders in the Nigerian port system, but that is an incorrect judgement.
Our findings have revealed that corruption is (in most cases) engineered from the point at which a consignment is procured. A situation when an importer defies import guidelines and import prohibition orders of the federal government makes the consignment and its importer susceptible. By implication, the licensed customs agent inherits the liability.
To ensure that the (offending) consignment is cleared out of the port, he (the clearing agent) begins to define ways and this means being at the mercy of officials of government agencies, notably Customs.
The notoriety and high rating which the Nigeria Customs Service enjoys on the corruption scale is not to say that other players are angels; virtually all the actors whom we have identified above are involved at one level or the other in making the port system what it is.
Stakeholders always rush to label customs personnel as the most corrupt, but as much as we do not want to draw a corruption perception table, we will like to look at them one after the other.
The first thing that happens once a ship comes into the harbours is that officials of government agencies; notably, the Nigeria Immigration Service go on board. Curiously, they board empty handed and disembark with loads of goodies including foreign drinks and other assorted items. That is the first act of corruption.
From that point, the terminal operator takes over and moves the consignments to designated storage facilities, while the importer or his licensed customs agents begins the process of taking delivery. From this moment, he is at the mercy of the container handler operator at the terminal, the Customs officer (and sometimes, the dockworker) at the terminal. If he is lucky and the container is not problematic, it may not be necessary to open his container for full examination; if this is so, he moves to the gate and still contends with a horde of agencies including the Police and the Customs who must again, vet the documents before the container exits.
We agree with those who have said that, a lot more collaboration is expected among the various government agencies, especially, NPA, Customs, NAFDAC, SON and the Police.
These are the frontline agencies, whose personnel interface and interact with critical stakeholders daily at different times and places at the ports. For success in the anti-corruption fight, the process of cargo clearance must be streamlined.
Corruption does not fester where there is use of information technology. The way Nigerian ports are currently run encourages corruption. We are happy that the Nigerian Ports Authority has almost fully computerized its operations, especially tariffs and billing. It is also almost done with the Port Community System. We hope that the Customs will hasten up in its modernization efforts. We are aware that the Nigeria Customs Service has almost fully embraced digitalization, so we pray that the process is completely integrated into the clearing process.
Above all, it is also our hope that the National Single Window project will become a reality soon, especially when the Federal Government has set a target of end of first quarter 2026 for its take-off.
