Dr. Boniface Aniebonam; founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), in this interview with Shipping Position Daily correspondent; Dapo Olawuni lamented the high cost of doing business in Nigeria. He also touched on other issues.
Looking at the port system this year, what are the changes?
Dr. Boniface Aniebonam; founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), in this interview with Shipping Position Daily correspondent; Dapo Olawuni lamented the high cost of doing business in Nigeria. He also touched on other issues.
Looking at the port system this year, what are the changes?
What has changed tremendously is that the corruption has continued to increase, the corruption is more now than before, and that means we are not making progress as far as the port is concerned. If you know the enormity of corrupt behaviors then you will appreciate the fact that things are not going well as expected, you see the agencies of government are no longer respecting the rules of engagement in terms of their oath of office. In the matter of corruption in Nigeria (as far as I am concerned) the giver and the taker are culpable and this is one major reason why we have not won the war, it’s because both parties are involved. But my own opinion about the whole thing is that somebody should be held responsible, the agencies of government are under oath to serve the constitution of the federal republic, they should not connive with the port users whose intention is to maximize profit, there is need to hold somebody responsible so that we can begin to see whether we can make any headway or not. The port as it is, physically you can see one or two things in terms of infrastructural development, but at the end of the day, what is the cost of doing business in our port, do all the infrastructures translate into a better competition? The answer is No. As far as I am concerned, the cost of clearing cargo at our ports today is much higher, so value has not been added in any form, the more we keep on with the way we are going, the more our problems in the port will be. For example; for the past two months there has been issue of congestion and human element problems, and you find out that even the agencies of government that are supposed to do something about it refused to do so, when there is confusion, a lot of people make money out of it. I am trying to summarize the port 25 years ago and now, and what I am saying is that we are not adding value because the cost of doing business is higher, and this is as a result of high level of corruption.
What is the way out of the high cost of doing business?
The high cost of doing business in our ports can easily be stemmed; the National Assembly out of their magnanimity has the responsibility of creating legislative platforms for good governance, the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding is a very good platform that could have been the tonic we needed to stop corrupt behaviors and high cost of doing business. When you look at that council, you will find out that all government agencies are dully represented there, and the council is anchored on those who are the real facilitators of cargo movement in and out; these are the freight forwarders, so issues that affect the efficiencies of the ports can easily be discussed there, because the CRFFN is domiciled at the transport ministry and the minister of transport is there to give direction and character of how the system works. The Customs is also strategic; looking at the Customs and Excise Management Act, they are also duly represented in the council, if you look at the CRFFN Act, you will find out that the critical stakeholders are there, so decisions can be taken there and government will be informed appropriately, in terms of control, if you are conversant with the Customs law, the Customs has every power to touch any aspect of the port that has to do with cargo that landed at the Custom port. So that regulatory agency we are looking for is already embedded in Customs, but we may decide to leave the commercial aspect of it, solution can also come through the Nigerian Shippers’ Council for obvious reasons, advisory capacity does not add any value, some of the things they advise the government to do is not done, and it is not more than what NAGAFF, ANLCA or other bodies do suggest to the government in advisory capacity. All we need to do now is to harness the wealth of experience, the material and human resources at the Shippers’ Council and transmute it to a port regulator, let it be properly entered into law.
There is an allegation that shipping companies connive with terminal operators to stack empty containers at the port in other to occupy space?
That is why I said that sometimes the agencies of government refuse to do what they are supposed to do, the powers inherent in the customs law, section 19 of the Customs and Excise Management Act is very clear, the power of the customs to stem cargo, not even the vessel, cargoes are under customs control at the port. So the issue congestion does not occur, customs has the power to direct a custom cargo to any particular place for officers to work on it. Some people have powers but they don’t know what to do with it, we cannot have these outer terminals lying dormant, all because somebody wants more business in his terminal, then the entire economy should suffer. I think the agencies should develop the will power to do their jobs, when you are doing the right thing you don’t have to fear anybody, because what you are looking at is national interest.
Transfer of containers from Tin Can and Apapa port to Ikorodu, is this being fairly carried out?
The port is an easy place to manage, if you look at section 31 of the custom law, it tells you what you should do with un-cleared cargoes, it is an enforceable section. All the noise we are making is not necessary because the first 14 days that the cargo is within the conventional ports, it must move, but here nobody is enforcing this and that is why we are witnessing congestion, congestion is when the cargo throughput inwards is more than the outwards. The terminal operators are supposed to impound un-cleared cargoes but they will not do that because they want to collect demurrage and storage charge, so one thing is to make law and another thing is to enforce the law, and if we keep making laws without enforcement, it makes nonsense of what we are doing. Transferring containers to Ikorodu is ordinarily not supposed to be news, but now it is going to generate money for some people, it is all about bad government, we are not trying to point accusing fingers, but the truth is that it is not difficult to run the ports, I use to tell those in authority to go ahead and do their job, they are all appointed by Mr. President, and if anybody thinks they are encroaching on their rights, let such go to the President.
Talking about destination inspection, service providers are to hand over to the customs by December 31st; do think there is enough awareness?
It will be wrong for me to say that customs has done well in that regard, it is very unfortunate and I feel sad to speak from this angle looking at my background. I could rather say this out of protest, is it only the Comptroller General of Customs that should be seen to be involved in sensitization? Honestly if I dwell on this matter a lot of people may misunderstand me because I recall that the CG sometime ago came up to Alaba market to address the traders, he came here again to talk about the Nigerian Trade Hub, but thereafter what happened? What about the subordinate officers from the zones, from the Controllers, cant they also move out and sensitize people? I think some of us should be found doing what we are suppose to do, policies trickles down, and the field officers should take responsibility in this aspect. What does it take the controllers or even the zonal coordinators to visit organized sectors like ANLCA, NAGAFF and so on, none of them moves out of their office; rather they just sit down there and be doing whatever they like. So straight to the answer, I do not think people are well sensitized about the PAAR, but I do know that probably soon, more efforts will be made in that direction, I have highlighted this internally for customs purpose, there are little things we should do without waiting for the Comptroller General of Customs to come and do it.
Can the low level of sensitization hamper implementation of PAAR?
There is still enough time for sensitization, they are starting it very fast and I am sure it will soon start, but really, nothing has changed in the PAAR application, there is nothing really new in the application, it is same thing with Risk Assessment Report (RAR), it’s just that customs is now handling it. Ordinarily nothing will change because as long as Nigerians are not ready to be trade compliant in making genuine declaration for custom purpose, the whole effort will be truncated.
Do you think government should review its policy on import tariff on rice?
I will come differently in making attempt to answer the question on rice. Right now rice is coming in more and more and some people are worried, customs is worried because the revenue is now eluding the government, if you go to Apapa port, rice is their major source of import and their major source of revenue, this is one of the reason why the revenue profile of Apapa customs has dropped and I know what I am saying. Again, taking us back during Chief Obasanjo’s era when the issue of textile was high, we saw clearly where textiles were burnt openly and destroyed all in the attempt of encouraging local textile manufacturers, yet we know we have not provided for the local consumption, it does not make sense. We know that Nigerian borders are extensive and large and we don’t have what it takes to cordon-off our border as it is now, yet you are creating this kind of lacuna, rice is a stable food for everybody, government should learn to create alternatives before taking certain actions because right now we don’t have a defined rice production programme that we would say is enough for Nigerians.
Discussion about this post