Chief Austen Kelly (Freight Forwarder)
I’m not interested in setting agenda for a minister who has less than 12 months in office. What do you expect him to do within such a short period when those who spent about four years as transport minister had little or nothing to show for it; especially in the maritime sector of the economy? No doubt our leaders are confused and as such we just have to wait and see but we should not expect anything fantastic from the new minister.
Prince Deola Ganny, (PRO ANLCA KLT Chapter)
You are a regular user of the ports access road and can testify to the fact that all is not well at our ports.
Sometimes, I doubt what role the Nigeria Ports Authority is playing at the moment. To me there is the urgent need by the minister to find out what challenges that are confronting the NPA because I see no reasons why the authority should find it so difficult to put the road in order considering huge amount of money that has been accruing to the nation from the maritime sector which is second highest revenue earner for the country.
I’m advising the new transport minister to pay an unscheduled visit to the ports and see things for himself. Everyday, you see containers falling off and importers losing millions of naira due to the bad ports access roads which should have been repaired by the NPA. The minister should be firm and remove parastatals heads that are not performing.
Mr. Eugene Nweke (National President, NAGAFF)
Right now, our ports are not efficient despite the concessioning of some areas to private operators. This is one of the reasons why the private operators keep taking the advantages by hiking their storage charges. This is worsening the Nigeria situation and if this continues, one day Nigerians will cry out. Go to the neighbouring countries, you will see the influx of goods into this country. The terminal operators in collaboration with shipping lines are right now extorting the Nigeria shipper. By the time a consignment arrives, a shipper who had not prepared to pay extra charges will now start to run up and down and will end up paying huge demurrage that will accrue as a result of delays in clearing their cargoes because of additional charges. This has led to diversion of cargoes to the neighbouring countries.
Therefore, I will want the new minister to see to that fact that the nation’s ports are made business friendly for Nigerians.
Chief Cosmas Ndimukara, (Freight forwarder)
Since he has worked in NMA before, he should not find it difficult to move the maritime industry forward and with the assistance of the stakeholders who are also keen in bringing sanity to maritime sector of the economy, he should know what to do.
Uche Nwabude, (NAGAFF Vice President, Western Zone)
He must listen to the stakeholders on what is on ground, how to better the life of the people doing business at the maritime industry. He just came in and we wish him well and hope he will able to turn the maritime industry around within the short period.
Ugochukwu Nnadi (Freight forwarder)
Our maritime sector in Nigeria has not been what it should be. There have also been round pegs in square holes. Well the new man has come he should know that our ports are not user- friendly. Even the duties that we are paying are too exorbitant. It is now too expensive to do business in Nigeria which has made our neighbouring countries to be benefiting from our inefficiency. The new minister should take another look at the concessioning arrangement and see if they are doing the right thing. The minister should set up control mechanism and adequately supervise the terminal operators.
The minister should also look at exorbitant charges at the ports.
Owolabi Omotayo (Water transporter)
The new minister has only about 13 months to serve, but I can tell you that he can do wonders in just six months, he should lay priority on true transportation network nation wide with emphasis on water transportation, we have to expand the water transportation usage and bring in more investors into the sector because the cost of running water transportation is quite huge than that of road transportation. Government has to come in, subsidize and look for the professionals who know about the business of maritime, not only in Lagos State, but all over the country, just like what governor Fashola is doing in Lagos, it should be nationalized in order to ease the pressure on the road.
Secondly, the habit of dumping refuse on the waterways should be discouraged, people have to be prosecuted, it should be publicized because these refuse destroys marine equipments, especially the ferries, when the engine takes in the refuse it causes over heating and it can breakdown which sometimes leads to accident, I think the minister have to do something about this.
Mr. Tope Wan (T&K world wide enterprises)
He should make the port environment conducive for port users, if you look at the Tin Can port environment, it is an eye sore and it does not portray us as a good maritime nation. These people travel abroad and they see how the port is being run there, they should try and imbibe same culture here, there is heavy traffic jam everywhere, if the minister can construct all the roads to the port, expand it and make it more motorable, I think it will be better.
As a new man, I believe he must have had one or two experiences in terms of maritime trade but personally, I don’t see him as an operational man, if it were to be an operational man it would have been much easier, from what I gather I think he is more or less an administrative person but even at that, what I expect him to do is call the stakeholders together, talking about customs, the concessionaires, the navy, clearing agents and the shipping companies to see how they can harmonize operations, vis-à-vis the latest things in custom operation now, they should consolidate better on how they can make the clearing of consignment possible within the shortest time considering the time frame he has as the minister.
Emmanuel Bradillo (Customs agent)
The minister should try and have a second look at the concessioning of the port, there should be a review of the concession process as well as have a second look at the activities of the terminal operators, there are lots of charges that are arbitrary in the port right now and which I think are not obtainable elsewhere. He should take a look at all these. Secondly, he should also take a second look at the Cabotage law and put new measures in place to make sure that the law is made to work for the indigenous ship owners in this country, there is need to empower Nigerians so that they can move forward in the international shipping community
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