Since we broke the story of Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) in our January 11, 2010 edition, maritime sector stakeholders have been feasting on it with indiscretion. At first, they all condemned it, but after a few ‘persuasions’, virtually all of them ‘saw’ reason to align with TPMS Antaser. The story has since changed as everyone (except a few) now swim in the pool of CTN with smiles. Mr Lucky Eyis Amiwero is one of those who have ‘seen the light of CTN’ and now says that it is the best thing to happen to the Nigerian shipping business. He spoke last week in stout defence of CTN at the press centre of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN). Shipping Position Weekly was there and we serve you his thoughts and why he ‘changed his mind’ and became the most vocal apostle of CTN with a single mission to ‘win more souls’ for the highly contentious levy.
Is this the way CTN is implemented in other countries and must it be given to consultants
Many countries also have consultants, based on their law, our own Shippers Council does not have the law to midwife CTN because they don’t have cargo generated process in their law, the only people who have the law to midwife CTN is the Nigerian Ports Authourity, because the cargo is being controlled by them and the law is very clear, Shippers Council is for shippers, but other countries of the world have a way they designed their laws and they have it compacted such that Shippers Council has some functions to play in cargo, but when you look at Nigerian ports system, Shippers Council don’t have any functions to play. The Port Act of 1999 which is the subsisting Act is very clear; I gave NPA comprehensive powers of the four port elements which are the cargo, infrastructure, the labour and the tariff and under the Act, the Nigerian ports are given the powers in terms of controlling those areas. There are three provisions in the Act, it says the cargo must be controlled by the ports, so if you don’t have an Act that can control the cargo can you midwife CTN, so when we talk about this, we must to look at the law and get these things very clear, you don’t just do it because other countries’ Shippers Council are involved in it. So what Nigeria has done is the normal thing, other countries have done it and that is to designate the CTN to private organizations because these people have their staff all over the world, but we do not have our staff all over the world, if it is given to the NPA for them to carry it out does NPA have staff in America, Canada or China? So most countries gave it out to private organizations to handle, even America still have to employ private hands in some places where their staff cannot get to and that is how it is with other countries. For instance how many people do you have in Shippers Council or NPA that you can send out to do these kinds of job, we need people who have offices all over the world to be able to monitor, track down cargo and get information required
Controversies about CTN
It is only in Nigeria that you have all these controversies, Nigeria controls 80per cent of the cargoes interest in the west and central African sub-region; it is a country that has destination of cargo, industries are here so whether you like it or not, cargo must come into this country, there are many countries that adopted the CTN and they don’t even have destination of cargo, they are transit ports and trans shipment centres, when you look at Egypt and Cote d’Ivoire, their cargo throughput is higher than Nigeria, but these cargoes are Nigeria- bound cargoes, this is why we are looking at those indices that will make our ports a transhipment center, Cote d’ Ivoire does not have the number of industries that we have in Nigeria, and when you have destination of cargo it means that the cargo must come into that country, reside their and move out, in other countries it is not consumed there, it is just a holding bay for them to move into Nigeria, we have a corridor with our neighbouring countries like Niger, Burkina Faso and so on, We are supposed to have a transit port in those areas because it is closer, so why are we involved in controversies when the country needs those things badly? I am one of the people who criticized the CTN before I finished my research. I am not talking out of context. So we should not go into the controversy about who operates CTN, everywhere it depends on the concept, if you have the money you can send people just as America is doing by sending their custom officers to inspect cargoes and go into partnership or do what China is doing by putting a satellite system which operates from everywhere, but if we do not have the money, we have to do like most of the countries that start from the manual before graduating into electronic.
CTN is supposed to guarantee security of cargo but the container in which toxic cargoes was discovered in the port recently had CTN. Is the purpose of CTN not being defeated?
First of all, America that is already operating this system have three laws which we have not even started looking at, initially they had so many problems, there was a time four men were arrested in a container, they actually passed through their security system even though America is having importers security filing and they have customs that are examining it so they should have crucified those people, CTN in Nigeria is a system that has not been implemented because the committees are still there seating down to do one thing or the other. Secondly, I don’t know what you refer to as toxic, I know those things the ship brought in are contrabands, I am not to talk for government but from what I have seen, used tires, fridges are contraband and if so they are different from toxic, toxic to me is when you open the container and everybody get affected, I am not a chemical expert, but from what I read in the papers about the container they are contrabands which is under the purview of the Nigerian Custom Service, but if other agencies are now coming to say there is toxic, I don’t know, because by toxic you will see the effects, used tires and used fridges may have their effects on the environment but they are not toxic in nature.
What if other groups rise against CTN in the future?
You can only say something is faulty when you have your facts; I have sent my findings to the minister, to the National Assembly and to the secretary to the federal government and they have responded by saying that it is a wonderful research. When the CTN was first mentioned, I was one of the people who objected and my objection was based on certain principles, after the first meeting I said okay let me go back and check so that I will not be talking out of context and when I finished with my findings I pushed it forward, so it is not an association matter, it is having the facts to say No, is it practiced in Togo, Gabon, Senegal, Ghana, Chad, Cameroun, Congo, it is only in Nigeria that it is not practiced and we control 80 percent of the cargo, so you don’t expect me to say CTN is wrong when every other country around my corridor is involved in it.
Will CTN relieve the Customs of policing the seaports, airport and border post on contrabands coming into the country?
I am not a CTN consultant, my own is to tell you that it is implemented everywhere, how it is implemented, what is being done and some of the challenges other countries are having before it took off even up till now. So we should not expect perfection from something we have not started implementing. Talking about the economic effect, if CTN has an interface with customs it will help them a lot, if it turns from manual to electronic, then, CTN is going to generate a lot of revenue. For instance, if the CTN is linked up to Custom server, for every cargo that has CTN number, it will reflect in custom server, so it is going to assist more because what we are doing now is destination inspection and what we do is just to issue it out without anybody inspecting it like other countries are doing, so CTN is to take care of some of these areas that we have faults. That is what is done globally; every country around us have started since 2003, 2005. So, in terms of assisting customs by curtailing smuggling, it is going to assist that is, if customs interfaces with the CTN group, it will help terminal operators, shippers and a whole lot of people in terms of statistics, the only thing left is that it should be implemented properly.
What are the economic effects of CTN?
Looking at other countries, they have additional cost, because if a container blows off in this port today, we will not be talking of $50 or $100dollars, even though we have not implemented ISPS to the fullest, if you go to other countries where it has been implemented you will see what they have spent in terms of putting up all these devices, so we are not looking at the cost. You cannot isolate yourself from the international community, if other people are doing it and you start complaining about $200 or $300, thereby allowing influx of contrabands to come in through your porous borders, tomorrow anybody can handle gun to do anything, What we believe is that the government itself should implement this thing fast and interface with international communities because one of the pillars in the securing of cargo is that you must interface with other agencies in the world because we have what is called global information, that is why we got the information about the said toxic container, we don’t know where it came from but it is a global information.
Is there no other law the National Assembly can enact to back CTN apart from NPA Act?
Well if you want to go into a new law nothing stops you from doing so but the laws there in NPA still gives them the right to monitor it and it’s clear. Under NPA, the law says you can go into partnership and appoint people to do cargo operation, under section 7, and under section 65-71, the cost of freight are there but you don’t have it in Shippers Council law, so everything is there in the NPA law, but now that we have a new law in the National Assembly, they can still inculcate CTN into a new law but for now I think NPA has what it takes to implement it.
NPA MD said initially that CTN will not bring about additional charges or any additional bureaucratic process, but it seems he lied
You don’t have additional documentary process in this port so the Managing Director is correct in that, the other is that when you look at terminal handling charges and delivery charges by concessionaires, they are supposed to take care of anything that has to do with CTN, because the terminal handling charge is to handle the cargo to the destination but like we said they are duplications and I think it will be addressed by government. They should remove the terminal handling charges and other charges that are not tied to service, my own concern is that what is done globally must be done here. Initially I kicked against the implementation of the CTN and I wrote that people must be consulted, even though I am not a member of that committee, but I told them to consult people so that they will be aware. What they are doing now is to fine tune it and see how they can accommodate everybody’s views.
What is the role of the bill of laden and how is it different from the CTN number?
Bill of laden is not CTN number; it is a contract of affreightment signed between the carrier and the agent, CTN is quiet different from bill of laden, America has bill of laden, China has bill of laden and importers security filings which is sending information you have in the CTN for their own that is different from the bill of laden. Bill of laden only tells you some few features about what you carry.
Why did it take NPA so long to embark on the CTN project, because there was a school of thought that says that after the ports reform, NPA was receiving cargo handling charges?
I want to make the point very clear. ISPS code did not bring in information system. ISPS Code came in and it was on ships and facility and not on cargo. But CTN in itself came in 2004 under the safe framework and that’s why America began their own implementation on January 26, 2010. ISPS Code is under IMO. The real people who are inspecting cargo is not IMO, They ferry cargo from place to another. They are not involved in cargo inspection. So the people who are involved in ship inspection sat under the WTO and decided to look at it and apply the security check so that the transport system will have security balancing and that is how they introduced what they call the safe framework .The safe framework has two pillars. One pillar is for customs and business. Meaning that you being a businessman you can face the customs, secondly we have customs and customs, as a customs man, you interface with other customs in the world. Some of the things you must do is that you must start to scan your containers, you must have your information in advance, you must not load anything aboard your ship unless the importers have submitted all the information; whether the bill of lading is there or not. And that’s what happens in China, and all over the world. Other people have bill of lading and have the same procedure. America started their own in January 2010. They call their own ‘new rule ten two’. On the ten and two, represent the importers information; the importers information you must give. And when you go through the information you must see it there. You have almost 60 countries that are involved in it. And most of them started in 2005 and some are still negotiating. I remember that three African countries started in 2010. Canada started their own in 2009. Cameroun in 2006, Congo in 2008. So it is not only NPA that just stared yesterday. America started their own in January and it’s going to be implemented by May this year. If NPA handled it badly, I tell you we are one of the people opposed to it. And we say you cannot do this thing without consulting us. And those moves bring about setting up a committee. I don’t know whether that committee has set up its report or not. I’m not a member of that committee. I, as a person, have done my own good work. I was invited to the meeting, we went there and discussed and I opposed it. I told them after that meeting that I had some information which made me to go back. And when I got the information, I sat down, came up with my own write up and I sent it to the government. One of the directors at the office of the Secretary to the Government called me and told me it was a wonderful document. You see Nigerians don’t read. They don’t do any research. The truth about it is that we have this research document now and I want it to be controverted.
In the other countries, the focus on the issue of CTN is on security but in Nigeria, the focus appears to be on money. How true is this?
I want to correct that impression. you must understand that this same company is involved in some other African countries and you have almost six of them, no country can be like America, Canada cannot even be like America. They don’t have the money. China has a wonderful satellite programme. In Nigeria, we are still using manual. Now that company you are talking about is involved in some other countries in the western part of Africa. And when you are talking about tracking, they must have their system before they can get the contract into this country. If you are involved in one or two other countries, tracking system is not to tell you how to discharge; it is only for us to continue to monitor them. And I want to tell you one good thing you people have done, you expressed your concern and it has been very good because it will keep the company on their toes to see how these things are implemented. Our own is to make sure we convey the message by telling you people what is obtainable internationally. I remember many of the time we criticised government some people will look at me and ask: what is this man talking about. At the end of the day, government will come back and rectify it. If I tell you that CTN is good, I will prove it. I’m telling you CTN is good and I have given you evidence. We concern ourselves and push most of the question to the port. What I have come here today to do is to bring you evidence that is not controvertible. If the CTN is properly implemented, everybody will be saved and secured.
How are we sure that when the implementation starts, you will still remain Lucky Amiwero?
No one will have been able to put the questions straight. There are three things involved. No one is informing the public adequately that this thing is being done within our corridors. We shall do that. Two, that we have been able to inform the public that the misconception that the Nigeria Shippers’ Council or NPA, I have been able to correct that. Three, informing the public that implementation of this thing, even though it is not properly implemented, with this kind of interest that is being generated from this angle, it will keep a lot of people on their toes to do the right thing. That’s why the press is there. You must understand my own kind of person. I must continue to do the right thing, to inform them that this thing must be done properly. Like I told you, when this thing came up, some called me and that there is a CTN thing and they sent it to my mail and I was not even interested. It was when my member called me and said such a thing is coming up, I remember protested to the Managing Director, NPA and he assured me that they are calling the stakeholders. I decided to go and carry out my research.
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