Chief Andy Best Omenogor, is a freight forwarder with over in the Nigerian maritime industry. In this interview with Anozie Egole, he speaks extensively on the challenges in the industry and where the government should focus on in 2020.
“NPA is the cause of why there are wharf rats in the ports”
Tell us about yourself?
My name is Chief Andy Best Omenogor. I started this journey of freight forwarding in 1980. As a young boy, I liked shipping and freight business and I joined the industry then were I worked with a company and from there I grew up to the level of Group Area Manager. I started my own personal business in 1993 and it has not been easy, but we are still on it. By the special grace of God, I love the business and I hope to hand it over to my son.
How would you describe 2019 in the nation’s maritime industry?
Well, 2019, though this government is doing so well, but they should put more interest in freight forwarding especially in the area of imports. I advise the government not to allow some people to hijack that sector because of their political interests. After oil the next sector that generates so much money to the economy is the area of imports and I will advise the government not to neglect that aspect of the economy. In Denmark, their only source of income is shipping and they are doing very well, here in Nigeria we have a lot of potentials.
Last year, the government should have looked into the importation aspect with the plans of making it beneficial to all Nigerians. I expected the government to encourage practitioners in the area of importation last year. This industry as at 2019, has employed more than six million Nigerians doing the business. In my office here alone, I have over 100 staff working with me and check the number of freight forwarders that registered last year. The industry has tried to remove unemployment and poverty off the streets; the government should have considered those things, all the agencies that the government set to regulate the industry are not doing the work, what they are after is the allocation coming to them from the government.
What are your expectations for this year 2020?
I think the government should look into the sector and encourage us because without the agents and freight forwarders collecting duties from imported goods there won’t be any revenue to the government. So I think the government should encourage practitioners to do better because when we do better, we will employ more people. We clear goods from the ports; we engage transporters and all sorts of artisans. The government should show more interest in the sector, even if you decide not to import again and you go into ship building, it still involve agents. They should encourage legitimate importers to do their jobs.
This year 2020 has some issues because this inability of vessels to berth because of congestion at the ports. And also the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) who is the regulating body, appears they don’t know what they are going to do or maybe the staff of NPA at the ports are deceiving the MD, I think this year there is need for her (MD) to call her staff who are placed there to order. They listen to lies and they are interested in their own personal pockets. Now we are suffering it because of the of backlog of the congestion due to the ongoing road construction which has entered the new year. Imagine vessels coming to Nigeria being sent back to South Africa and these were goods made for last Christmas. And the truth is that the government didn’t plan well because they neglected this part of the business. We want them to put a proper regulatory body that will manage the industry in place because this congestion will linger if the government didn’t do anything serious.
The congestion will continue till June this year and people will be forced to pay N2million per one truck for local transportation if care is not taken. The government should try and establish other ports in other parts of the country if they want rest here in Lagos. They should encourage people to go to other ports.
What is your take on the issuance of port pass by NPA?
NPA is confused, they have no right to say you must get a port pass before you access the ports, they are the landlord but they have sold the spaces. Therefore, they should allow terminal operators to be the ones issuing port pass to their customers because they have containers to load. For instance, Grimaldi gives port passes to their customers who they want inside their terminal you cannot allow everybody to go inside the ports. NPA has no business issuing port pass they simply want to steal from agents by issuing port pass. Why will they issue port pass, they have not authority to do that except you want to tell me that the terminals are no longer working?
What is your take on the upsurge of wharf rats in the ports?
This is happening because NPA as the landlord has rented their spaces out, they should remove their hands, let the terminal operators control the affairs of the ports and the spaces they give them. They are all tenants and they should be allowed to take care of their terminals, the terminal operators should not allow anybody to enter without port pass. NPA is the cause of why there are wharf rats in the ports, because they issue port pass to the wrong people who do not have any business in the ports.
What do you have to say about the Nigeria Customs Service $300million modernization contract that was cancelled?
The proposed contract was a scam which they had wanted to use to scam people. Some politicians who are interested in high jacking the nation’s treasury wanted to do that. Thank God our president was smart enough not to fall for their plans, because if they had allowed that to happen they would have turned this country upside down. Because I have not seen anywhere in the world where a nation’s treasury was sold, that was what they did to NNPC and up till today we have not recovered, refineries they have not been able to build. And once you concession this out, some group of persons will be eating this money and they will remit to federal government whatever they want.
There have been calls by freight forwarders for consolidated rate of duty on imported vehicles, what do you have to say about that?
The reason there is no consolidated rate for imported vehicles is because of corruption, our people are so corrupt. We are over-intelligent but we don’t use our intelligence to do the right thing. If you bring a 2019 model of vehicle and you pay N3million, it is better for the government to collect the N3million than saying that you should pay 35% additional VAT, what is the need. People are not paying it because the duty is high. You go to Tin-Can you pay (for example,) N3million and the same motor you pay N3.5million elsewhere. They should say that whatever a particular motor should pay at Tin-Can should also be applicable for the same motor coming through Apapa or any other ports in the country. They should spell it out to everybody that you pay a particular amount without VAT, you will see people will comply. Because if you make things difficult, people will find a way to survive. The government should look at it, and give it a benchmark Nigerians will be complying and the government will be making more m
oney. If Mr. ‘A’ is paying higher and ‘B’ is paying lower, it will not work, they will always go where the thing will be cheaper.
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