In this interview with Oluyinka Onigbinde, the Chairman of Nigerian Ports Consultative Council; Mr Bolaji Sunmola dwells on peculiarities and challenges of doing business in Nigerian ports. He also opens-up on how the Council is grappling with survival due to paucity of funds.
What are the top priorities of the NPCC as regards the Nigerian maritime sector?
In the NPCC, a competitive and efficient Nigerian port sector is what we envision. We are not surprised when you see us complaining about Togo, maybe now Ghana, I don’t know. It’s because we are not competitive enough, and our ports are not busy because we are not competitive enough. Other ports are coming up, there are developments that are coming, so it’s high time Nigeria sat up, to be able to measure up to this. From the perspective of Nigerian Port Consultative Council, all that we do is to drive economic growth. It’s to ensure that our growth, that the country is always improving its service delivery at our ports because it’s all about service. If we do not deliver service, then we will have missed it. God forbid; I hope our ports will not become a museum center in the future. But it’s all about growth. NPCC is about driving growth, ensuring that our ports are competitive, ensuring the right things are done, ensuring that all the sectors within this community work together, ensuring that government policy too works in the direction of saying that they are thinking ahead of the users, and they are laying down the right pathway. Because without them, there’s not much we can do, because government has to give us a pathway. And of course, all this feedback comes from organizations like us to aid and to support their decision making. That is what we envision of Nigerian Port Consultative Council now and in the immediate future.
Almost all the agencies in the port have increased their tariffs which have made trade in the Nigerian maritime sector quite difficult and many traders are looking at other neighbouring ports as an alternative. What is NPCC doing as regards addressing some of these issues?
It’s a very worrisome thing. Let me pick it one after the other. The 4% of the Customs came at a very wrong time. It’s a bad taste for the whole economy. Thank God a lot of other organisations took that up and government quickly back-pedalled and ensuring that this is reviewed. I say Kudos to a listening government for that. But we should start thinking that it’s not our performance or increase in performance or patronage or revenue driven, that should not be the basis at which we’ll be rating our ports. This is because if we’re making our ports to be based on driving revenue without efficiency, then we’ll be doing a lot of damage to the economy and to encourage the port users to be more friendly. There’s a part of the government which needs to be done, which is important, which is to be more market-driven. And when you have the philosophy of being market-driven, you are putting the customer first. What are the needs of the customer? What are the requirements? What makes them happy? And then, of course, over a long time, you know that the resources will definitely come in. At the time when you are satisfying them, there will be no other places they could go. We should always have a long-term development plan. We’ll have a long-term plan that will ensure that our policies can sustain the timing at which we want and for the result we’re expecting of them.
Talking about that, is the NPCC looking at bringing some of these players into a roundtable due to the fact that cargo clearance time, custom process of clearing the cargo is quite difficult?
Yes. Part of some of the strategies we have for this year is all about that. We are for consulting, arbitrating, and ensuring that the smooth pathway is laid out for our ports to be most efficient. Of course, we are looking at that, to bring all the parties around to discuss with them. And then yes, most of the common denominations, sometimes from the perspective of the governmental agencies, they are not in parity with the government policy. Some of them are overzealous who want to drive revenue, but that’s not the way to drive. We should look at the long path. Everything should be all thinking of ease of doing business. Ease of doing business says a lot to the development of a nation. Yes, we are looking in this direction, and I hope shortly you’ll see us maybe convening a meeting of like minds to see that this is addressed, and going to the necessary agencies to have a discussion with them. Already we are planning to discuss with the Ministry of Trade and Investment in Abuja, and then looking forward to what such meeting will bring.
The issue of the renewal port concession agreement has lingered for so long. Stakeholders are worried that the federal government has not renewed some of the concession agreements of some of the terminal operators. What’s your take on this?
Really, from my own perspective, somebody raised it at one of the council meetings we had about two weeks ago, and we felt really worried about it. What is the undercurrent? Is the government trying to change their policy on concessioning? That’s a big, huge question. We are not seeing that sign. But where you have it lingering for more than five years and the renewal is not given, it behooves on ordinary eye to see. But it’s important that the interests of our ports should be taken at heart and whatever it is that is bringing any disagreement or any issue, let them know. It is the people at the port, the port users that will suffer. I hope the government and the terminal operators will come to a quick agreement, and this will be resolved either way for the common users of the port to continue to have wonderful services provided.
Our most concern is that services and infrastructures at the port should not be played with. If this is lingering, we know it’s the nation and the economy that will suffer. So, we hope quickly that this will be resolved as quickly as possible.
Recently, NPCC issued a press statement about the fact that it hopes to be the data warehouse for the maritime industry. What has been the update on this?
NPCC work by committees and the committees have very distinguished members who have proven their mettle in the maritime industry. One of the committees is the Research and Development committee and fortunately for us, one of our members is a professor who has had so many years of experience working with the private sector as well, and worked as a public sector teacher, worked as a government employee at one point or another, is heading this committee. And they are having a lot of resource people within them too. In fact, today they had their inaugural meeting together. And they are putting things together, because that’s the arm of the council that is taking this up and don’t forget, our late Otunba Folarin (may is soul rest in peace) is a repertoire of information and data in the past. So, all of this we are trying to put together to ensure that once we have this particular committee fully set up, it will be a robust one. It will be a repertoire of information that will be a one-stop where people can reach into. We are putting all of this into planning. We are just at the planning stage. But I’m sure before the middle of the year, we’ll be able to launch out for others to come in and enjoy from the rich information and data that will be coming out from this department.
With ports in Togo, Ghana, and even our neighbour; Benin Republic here, competing for regional dominance, what specific steps do you think relevant agencies in the Nigerian maritime sector need to take in order to ensure that Nigerian ports remain the preferred choice for shippers?
It’s a shame that Nigeria is a consumption centre, but it’s not the beneficiary of all the ancillary profits that comes with what we consume. When we talk of the whole of West Africa, I think we consume more than 70% of them. We have the population and our GDP is even one of the best. Yes, we have our own economic goals and all that to contribute, but thank God this government is doing all their best to ensure that the proper foundation is laid for our economy to stabilise. There can be no economy like Nigeria in the sub-Saharan sector of Africa. This is where it is happening. A country of more than 200 million people; I’m sure we are more than that, and with the enormous resources we have, there is no power that can play with the economy of Nigeria. I see that is only for our port to just to wake up and ensure that we put in the right system. And that’s why I give kudos to the National Single Window that this present government has ensured that it is not only been talking, but there is a lot of action that is going for it to come into play because we need that. Again, as I said, we need to make ease of doing business in Nigeria a priority for everybody. My people in Nigeria are very hardworking and they are very calculative of what profits and all of that that can make their business to be profitable.
Don’t forget, Nigeria is almost in every economy in the world and we are ready to do business in Nigeria. But the condition by which all these businesses will be organized is very important. So Nigeria should be able to put her acts together and ensure that ease of doing business in Nigeria is good and trouble-free. Of course, we can’t have a trouble-free environment, but one that will not make their investment threatened or makes them to lose all the labours that they have put in place, in the years to come by. So it’s important that we ensure that goods and services provisions in Nigeria are improved and all the agencies coming together in this single window to ensure that it works. And we see the tremendous effect it will be on our Nigerian economy. You see, all those white ports will be wiped away. We cannot stand the Nigerian economy. And I’m serious about that. I know we have a lot of talk going into port developments too. Of course, we have our offshore arrangements and all that.
Recently the NPCC said it is engaging the private sector; how do you think this can drive port efficiency? And what benefit do you think the maritime industry will get from getting this private sector to come into the Council?
Well, for the Council, it’s a policy that we adopted; that’s the way to go. Because we have to break off from our old shell and engage the real practitioners within the industry. And if you look at the quantum of import and export, it’s private sector-driven. So we had to reach out to the owners of the cargo, to the users of the cargo, and those ensuring that the cargo gets smoothly to the end users and all that. So we have no other option than to ensure that this is done. Government is only to facilitate and ensure that there is a good atmosphere where commerce can be practiced. The actual practitioners are you and I who are out there to support and ensure there is ease of doing business and that commerce goes in and out smoothly. So we will be doing more of that. We want to involve more of people who are direct practitioners within the industry. Are you an exporter? Are you an importer? Come to us. We will always ensure that we bring succor to whatever problems that comes to you. And after all, we are not even charging anyone. It’s free. It’s free counseling we give. It’s free arbitration we give. It’s not at the cost to anyone. Because we believe in Nigeria, commerce is where the action is in this sector of the Nigerian economy.
There have been several attempts to raise money to fix the dilapidated infrastructure in the ports in the country. So what is your take on this in terms of infrastructure?
Well, we all know that the government is made up of people and any advice is as good as the government. The immediate past MD of NPA raised alarm on the collapsing quay apron. Did he do anything? That I cannot answer for him. I think the question will be left for him to answer. But since there’s a new sheriff in town now, I think he has done something that was wonderful. He has gone around the ports to assess all the kind of repairs or decay and he has come up with a report. He was really truthful to say, yes, our ports need restructuring and repair. Our ports need to be developed to a certain standard, for which I give kudos to him. But then, the paucity of funds is another issue. I’m sure they are working hard on that to ensure that the port infrastructure is upgraded and brought up to date. I can see that as his major focus during his own stay, because he has paid a lot of visits to most of these ports. And I’m sure they are working on the mathematics, because it’s another thing for you to want to repair. The wherewithal must be there. And we know what the Nigerian economy has gone through in the last 10 years. Government’s resources are, I won’t say it’s dwindling, but of course there are so many sectoral allocations. There are so many issues. We have transport, education, health, all of this, fighting for money from the government to be able to do their thing. But the ports too, will get its own. I have a trust in this new MD of NPA to ensure that the decay is arrested and as quickly as possible, most of the repairs will commence. I’m hoping that in the next few months, some of these repairs will commence.
We know before now, many of the agencies have not really shown support to the NPCC in terms of financial support to help. We are aware of NPA support. But how is the council faring now in terms of support from other agencies?
Well, I hope this will not be seen as maybe it’s a solicited question from you. I think it’s the first time any of the journalists will come to us and talk about our financial position. Yeah, really, our financial position at the council is really a sorry sight, very bad, because we don’t go cap-in-hand and begging. We are not asking any individual or company. We only work on donations that people give to us. Yes, kudos to NPA I must tell you that, they have been sustaining us with some funds to ensure that we are still floating. But we need much more than that. From the council’s perspective, we have commenced a report looking into how we can dilute our source of income to have an increase. Just about two days ago at a meeting, I was in one of the committees, finance and general purpose where these issues were raised. One of the suggestions was whether to task members coming in and be charging some fees and all that. Why would that be? If you’re now charging an individual and it will now be that because of my money I’m joining. No, we don’t want you to see from that perspective. But we are looking at categories of different areas, whether we can increase our funding, just to know that it’s an issue. We can see our office, we need renovation, we need some other things to be able to do, and there are staffers there that are running it. So we cry out loud now, we use this medium to cry out loud now to other agencies to please come to our aid and that they can be assured that from this present set up of the council, we’ll be accountable to every kobo that is given or invested to ensure that we carry out our functions. We’ll be accountable for every kobo that is given to us and that will be money that will be well spent. We are open for everybody to come and see our books and see how we run. There is no cover up there, but we appeal for people to come out; from agencies to concerned companies to come with their assistance and they’ll be proud of what we will do with such assistance that they render to us.
