Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA), Malam Abdusallam Mohammed has submitted that the nation stands to gain tremendously from the introduction of the controversial Cargo Tracking Note (CTN), even as he disclosed that a whopping Euro6Million (or aboutN1.194Billliion) is projected as annual revenue within the first year of its introduction.
Speaking officially last Friday in his office for the first time since the CTN was introduced on January 11, 2010 and since initial opposition to the levy became apparent, the NPA boss argued that CTN was not a creation of either NPA or the Federal Executive Council, but an international imperative which emanated from the international maritime community on account of the terrorist attack on the United States of America (USA) and the subsequent introduction of the now famous International Ships and Ports Security (ISPS) code.
He told a select group of journalists that after meeting the ISPS code, there is need for different countries to also have advance information on consignments coming into their ports, adding that many African countries have already introduced the CTN. He mentioned Angola, Benin Republic, Central African Republic and Cote D’ Ivoire as some of the countries where incoming containers must have a CTN identification number.
“In addition to the proactive measures that are provided in the ISPS Code, you also need to be able to know the shipment that is coming into your country, the vessel that is coming into your country; the reason essentially is that you need to trap adequate information relating to cargo and ship movement into your country well in advance. That will help you to be ready if possibly you have something suspicious relating to either the cargo that is coming in or the ship that is coming in”.
Giving a background to how the CTN came about, he explained that after the ISPS code has come into effect, it became imperative that funding to execute I be sourced, hence the introduction of CTN.
He also confirmed that NPA’s projected earning from the CTN in the first year is about Euro6Million and that the funds will essentially be used to improve on facilities in the nation’s ports.
He appealed to the organised private sector (OPS) to see reason with the Government and indeed NPA on the CTN adding that the stakeholders’ technical committee which was constituted a results of several meetings and which also included members of the OPS has submitted its report, but he has told them to hold more consultations and iron out some of the remaining grey areas.
“The committee has just concluded its assignment; I have looked at the report of the committee and I have asked the committee to meet once again to harmonise positions in some little areas of differences and these little areas of differences are not fundamental differences”
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