Apparently, responding to the immediate fury of opposition which greeted the recently introduced Cargo Tracking Note (CTN), the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) has shifted grounds on the commencement date of the levy. It will now commence in March, rather than January 14, 2010 which was contained in the earlier memo that was signed by the organization’s managing director, Malam Abdul Salam Mohammed.
Sources confirmed that the shift in commencement date was one of the agreements that were reached during a three-day marathon meeting which was held with stakeholders throughput last week. Those who attended the meeting were drawn from groups like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), multinational shipping lines and freight forwarders.
The meeting also resolved to se up a technical committee which is headed by the general manager, western zone of the organisation, Malam Mohammed Bulangu.
Confirming the development to Shipping Position Weekly, NPA’s managing director explained that the whole essence of the CTN was being misconstrued by stakeholders and that the series of meetings were aimed at addressing all the grey areas and reassures them that the levy is not an attempt to impose additional charges on importers.
“Believe me, the CTN is not new, it is already being collected by those who should not be collecting, so what we are doing is to ensure that what belongs to Nigeria gets to us”, even as he refused to disclose the identities of the organisations that have been collecting it”.
According to him, government discovered that many countries are already collecting CTN, but Nigeria is not, so introducing the levy in Nigeria can not be strange to operators in the logistic chain.
According to him by not introducing it for many years, Nigeria is losing, "If your country collects CTN it is remitted to you, but if your country does not operate the CTN system, you don’t get anything”.
“The CTN has always been there and being collected by some foreign interests from
Unsuspecting shippers, but we are already enlightening stakeholders about these facts
and I am sure that the on going discussions is working and very soon all the grey areas
Will be cleared”, he assured.
Sources at the meeting explained that the NPA boss had assured all stakeholders who
attended the meetings that government had the best of intentions with the introduction of
CTN and that it is committed to trade facilitation in the country and as such will
not initiate any policy that may affect the attainment of such objective.
Shipping Position Weekly confirmed that the technical committee is expected to submit its report on Monday, January 25, 2010 and that the report will most likely stamp the March, 2010 commencement date.
The technical committee is drawn from NPA, private terminal operators, shipping lines, MAN, NACCIMA, among others.
Shipping Position Weekly confirmed that consultants to the federal government on the CTN; Transport and Ports Management System is actually owned by one Mr. Jean Codo, a Beninois who was once a minister during the regime of President Mathieu Kerekou.
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