The Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) said yesterday that terminal operators have been taking advantage of certain loopholes in the port concession programme, especially the non-passage of the Ports and Harbour bill to arbitrarily hike port charges.
The BPE however called for the passage of the Bill by the National Assembly to enable the Nigerian Shippers' Council (NSC) to perform optimally.
Director General of BPE, Benjamin Dikki stated this at a one day conference on review of the port concession agreement.
The Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) said yesterday that terminal operators have been taking advantage of certain loopholes in the port concession programme, especially the non-passage of the Ports and Harbour bill to arbitrarily hike port charges.
The BPE however called for the passage of the Bill by the National Assembly to enable the Nigerian Shippers' Council (NSC) to perform optimally.
Director General of BPE, Benjamin Dikki stated this at a one day conference on review of the port concession agreement.
He said charges at the Nigerian seaports are not competitive within the sub-region, adding that passage of the Ports and Harbour bill will prevent such.
He said that in the area of port infrastructure development, the concessionaires made some level of progress since 2006 but on the aspect of charges , terminal operators have not been fair to shippers.
Dikki lauded that the Nigerian Shippers Council efforts to resist the concessionaires, adding that the council has been able to restore some level of sanity in the port even with its handicap as an interim port economic regulator. He said that there is need for the Council to fully assume the status.
He said there is need for Nigerian ports to be competitive noting that charges being made by the concessionaires have made importers to divert their respective cargoes to other ports where it is cheaper to do business.
Dikki further reiterated the need for Nigerian ports to be the choice hub in the sub region.
"We can compartmentalize the impact of our port reform into two categories which include, infrastructure development"
"Have the infrastructures in the ports improve from the ports improved since 2006 to what it is today?, the answer is in the affirmative, it is positive"
"Anybody that has seen the ports since 2006 and goes round today; those in the ports today know that the concessionaires have made investments which ordinarily a government cannot bring out from its budgetary allocation to support"
"But on the issue of economic regulatory side, the concession were envisage at inception, the Ports and Habour bill would have been passed and an economic regulator would have been in place to police the behaviour of the concessionaires "
"But unfortunately up till date the Ports and Harbour bill has not been passed and it has left a vacuum which the concessionaires as businessmen exploited the situation and were charging rates that are not competitive, delaying cargo and all those kind of things needs to be regulated, prevented from happening as well"
He stated that there is need to enforce a regulator to checkmate terminal operators behaviour because the nation's ports remain unfriendly to business in region due to high charges by the concessionaires.
However, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara charged maritime stakeholders to take a position on the various pending bills before the house.
Represented by Deputy Chief Whip; Honourable, Pally Iriase, he urged the terminal operators to improve in some areas even as he added that the concessionaires have invested in areas of infrastructures.
According to him, there is need for the concessionaires to improve in areas like full automation of cargo clearing process, empty container truck management, reduce bureaucracy and rehabilitation of the port access roads.
According to him, yesterday’s stakeholders’ meeting came at a time when the federal government is set to sanitize all sectors, adding that the maritime sector plays a key role to component of the nation.
He further revealed that the 8th National Assembly will revisit all pending maritime and transport bills, which he mentioned to include: the Ports and Harbor bill and the National Transport Commission bill respectively.
He added that at the twilight of the last administration, many critical bills of transport sector were submitted to the National Assembly as executive, bills noting that the bills have taken the executive arm of government many years to process.
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