Otunba Kunle Folarin (Chairman, Port Consultative Council)
Otunba Kunle Folarin (Chairman, Port Consultative Council)
The Bill is currently before the Senate and in their own wisdom, they are still working on it, but definitely a lot of issues will arise as a result of the delay in their passing the Bill, the port industry is dynamic and where nothing is done where it should be, definitely it will affect development in the industry. Key issues like concessioning, infrastructural development, landlord model which are supposed to be idolized are being neglected due to the delays in the process and passing of the Ports and Harbour Bill, however, without prejudice to the challenges, we believe that the Bill should be given a priority. The concession exercise needs to be put in legal perspective, if you are having a multibillion naira investment sector and you are not sure of the legal status, why would you invest more? On the landlord model the NPA is to promote infrastructural development, green view development and many more, the landlord model will only take place when the bill has been passed into law. My advice to the lawmakers is that they pass the bill, whether in the same form or amended with their wisdom, there has been several hearing on it and there is nothing more than for the lawmakers to do their job.
Dr. Frank Ukoh (President, AREFFN)
I want to urge the lawmakers to try and pass the Bill into law so that things will start working, we have been clamouring for a port regulator all this while and we think that if this bill is passed and a port regulator is appointed, it will help all of us in the maritime industry, especially those of us in the freight forwarding sector of the industry. The clearing agents that are directly involved in cargo clearing through custom clearance, this is necessary because of the incessant increase by concessionaires over their charges, this is the area we have been complaining about. I want to focus on this area of the provision of the Bill, we need a port regulator, we don’t want to suggest who, but if you ask me, the only agency that is already poised to assume the responsibility is the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, we want them to pass the Bill into law so that the impact of the sector can be felt.
Owolabi Omotayo (MWUN, Liverpool)
The non-passage of the Bill has affected maritime industry negatively, because there is no clear cut operational procedure, if you go to the port you will see that the people that government concessioned the port to are not following the laid down rules and regulations because there is no viable document for them to work with, they just do whatever they like in the port, including the port security officers, cargo handling and the port environment, especially the port access roads. All these things have to be taken care of by the Bill, it will spell out the duties and responsibilities of all the players in the industry, but with the non-passage of the bill a lot of abnormalities are taking place and it has led to minimal operations in the port and it has also led to Nigeria being categorized negatively in the international maritime cycle. My advice to the lawmakers is for them to pass this bill so that the players will know what and what their duty is, it will help to develop the maritime sector and spell out responsibility of all the players.
Sampson Chima (Registrar, NIS)
The main reason behind the Bill is to put the port in shape, before now we do not have a particular port regulator and Shippers Council has proposed to be the port regulator, but the ports and harbor Bill itself will correct the terminal operators on areas not to go and so on, but since it has not been passed the port has just been in limbo since concession was done, nothing is moving forward because we are operating a landlord model. Other sub-sectors have not also been working well because there is no enabling Act guiding the operations, everybody is just on their own, we have several maritime bills at the house, the ports and harbors bill has been treated by the lower chamber, it has been taken to the Senate, but the Senate has not passed any maritime Bill up till now, the committee on maritime transport should wake up to their responsibilities to make sure that the Bills are passed before their tenure runs out, it is the legislatures that are delaying this Bill from being passed.
Eugene Nweke (President NAGAFF)
A lot of political intrigues are involved in the process , the law itself will accommodate some of the changes that will come by way of concessioning but they never did. NPA Act remains what it was and they went ahead, sat down and adopted a landlord model type of port concession. Now NPA says they want to collect port pass when they are no longer in charge of the terminals, so this are the aftermath of the whole effect of the bill pending before the legislature and NPA never had a futuristic plan for the port development
Nwagbara Osuala (Maritime Lawyer)
My take on the non passage of the ports and harbour bill of the maritime industry is that ports in the eastern part of the country has largely remained undeveloped. Its means also and more seriously, that competition has not been engendered in the port services sector in Nigeria, such that the end users of goods and services from the ports in the country have to pay more. It also means that the infrastructural development has been concentrated in the western ports and the resources that would have been available for use of stakeholders in the eastern part of the country has been denied. So overall it has not made for the expected development that we have looked forward to at the time the bill was brought up. This in a nutshell, is the effect of the non passage of the ports and harbour bill. Again I believe it is because of politics and lack of resources that is making the bill to remain where it is.
Daniel Williams (FFAN)
What it means is that the port is yet to be concessioned. And the more delay the bill receive, the more the terminal operators stand the risk of being thrown away by any new government that do not like their faces. If after seven years of the so-called concession, the Port and Harbour Bill is yet to be enacted, then I must say that the concession itself is a wishy-washy thing. And. For a maritime country like ours, where there is no commercial port regulator to serve as an ombudsman does not tell good at all about the nation ,the industry and the economy, because the end users are the ones to suffer at the end of the day.
Odulaja Eniola (Stakeholder)
The result is what we the stakeholders are facing, it by way of arbitrary charges by shipping companies, no proper structure on ground to control and regulate the concessionaires, nobody is making any concrete effort to put them in check. If at the end of the day the bill sails through, then there will be some level of control on their activities by government. But politics has made the bill to be abandoned on the floor of the House. Today stakeholders are bitter about charges for clearing of goods from the port and it is a huge problem for the industry and the economy of the country.
Mr Anosike Godwin (NIMASA, Eastern Zone, Port Harcourt)
The effect has resulted in inadequate performance of the ports, poor inflow of private investment and competition. This has made government to disengage from some activities. What most governments do now is to create enabling laws and environment for private sector to function. The non-passage has denied the ports of major benefits that comes with ports and concession, which is competition and inflow of private sector funds from investors.
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