Just when thoughts of it have started fading from our memories, opinions about how and which organisation should be created or should transmute to assume the role of a regulator for the nations’ port system, have started dominating discuss within the maritime sector, once again.
Just when thoughts of it have started fading from our memories, opinions about how and which organisation should be created or should transmute to assume the role of a regulator for the nations’ port system, have started dominating discuss within the maritime sector, once again.
Prior to now, there were only three options, namely; to transmute either Nigerian Ports Authourity or Nigeria Shippers’ Council to a port regulatory agency or to create a distinct agency to handle it. And recently, what one can describe as the most absurd was added, when the factional president of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents; Mr Lucky Amiwero argued that the role of port regulation should be handed over to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
Prior to now, the National Assembly had also unsuccessfully worked on the Ports and Harbour Bill which also made provisions for the creation of an Independent Port Regulatory Agency. The attempt has not gone beyond the House of Representatives, while the Senate has not even given it any consideration.
The first confirmation that the port concession really needs a regulator was on January 17, 2007, when the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents led by Mr Lucky Amiwero rallied members of the association to seal-off the corporate head office of a terminal operator at Tin Can Island port; Port and Cargo Handling Services Limited.
The aggrieved agents had accused the terminal operator of arbitrary charges and of giving their customers ‘crazy bills’.
This has since become a regular occurrence and reaction to grievances by licensed customs agents, as customs agents regularly take on shipping companies and terminal operators to demand for one remedy or the other.
These facts make the need for a port regulator to be a sine qua non.
Aside the Ports and Harbour Bill, another angle to the port regulator debate is that of the ministry of transport which favours the enactment of the National Transport Commission (NTC) Bill by the National Assembly.
Apart from the incumbent minister; Senator Idris Umar who have been silent about the faith of the Bill, his predecessors in office have demonstrated their preference for the more holistic NTC.
The NTC is also being promoted by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) which sees it as being in tandem with the bureau’s plan to have a comprehensive and all-inclusive reform package which will also include the creation of NTC that will regulate the activities of terminal operators and look at the inter-modal transport system wherein the ports would be linked with rail systems to ensure quick cargo transit from the port.
By whatever name it is going to be called, one fact is certain and that is that, the post-concessioned port system requires both a technical regulator and a commercial regulator.
We are worried about the fact that more than six years after the ports were concessioned; an integral part of the deal is yet to be incorporated.
We place the blame for this, squarely on the National Assembly and just like we have written on this page in the past, successive members of the committee on marine transport in the two chambers have failed.
We are opposed to turning any of the existing agencies into a regulator; rather we strongly suggest that the lawmakers see the process of passing the Ports and Harbour Bill through, while NPA, Shippers’ Council and others should remain focused on delivering on their mandate.
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