Akin Leoso (Senior Staff, NPA branch)
The situation has to do with government itself; as the saying goes that too many cooks spoil the broth, when NPA was in charge of operations in the ports, the complaint was that there were delays in the process which affected the turn- around- time of vessels, NPA is not in charge anymore now we have the private terminal operators handling cargoes, but we still have the problems we had which is that there are too many hands, too many agencies of government in the ports. I believe government needs to streamline the activities of its agencies, in other countries this is not the case, if there is need for any inspection, the customs will be the one to invite the relevant agencies, but what do we have in Nigeria? You see everybody doing almost the same thing, I believe government needs to look into it and reduce the agencies in the port because we are having the problem of function overlap and it currently affect the turn -around time of vessels and it will definitely add to the cost of doing business at the port.
Oluwole Adeyemi (MD, Broadline service Ltd)
The moment there is trust and patriotism between government and its operatives, there will not be proliferation of task forces or of agencies as a means of checks and balances in the port. If the government has the confidence in the Nigeria customs, then they should be allowed to do their job, because whether you like it or not, they are the ones in charge of examinations and there is no way that in the cause of examination and there are firearms that customs will not intercept it, and when this happens they hand it over to the appropriate agencies. I believe that if there is that demarcation in everybody’s function, it will go a long way, we also have scanners that can detect all these things and we still do physical examinations.
Andrew Airahuobhor (Maritime reporter)
The proliferation of agencies at the ports is caused by the government and to curb it, it is the same government that can do it, there is nothing anybody can do about it because the government agencies are working for the government and they are in government-owned port. So if it must be reduced, it must come from the same government. First thing is that there must be the political will to stop them from disturbing cargo clearance at the port because right now their activities is disturbing the wheel of fast cargo clearance, NESREA wants to come in, Road Safety Corp is already here, there are five statutory agencies that are supposed to be in the port and they all want to examine every cargo that comes in through the ports and by so doing they delay the clearance process and they also add to the cost of clearing goods, the importer will not want to bear the cost alone, he will like to spread it to the people. In order to make the port friendly, government needs to address this issue of proliferation of agencies. A committee was set up sometimes ago and it reduced the agencies to just five, but we don’t know what has happened to the report of this committee because it was not implemented.
Gantima .B. Liman (Maritime consultant)
The inherent characteristics of the shipping business as well as the cargoes and passengers they carry which I believe must be given adequate safety and security, commercial considerations, pollution concerns and so on, all these requirements joined together is what has made the port to be inundated by multifarious agencies. These agencies are being created by individuals who want to benefit from the system and not really because they want to impact positively on the system, the agencies have a funding from government which they share and they also have a way of causing the port users to pay something to them, basically they are there to make money and not to facilitate any trade, there is no other way except the government that allowed them in ask them to get out. Secondly, what I see here is for us to establish what we call a one stop central cargo and passenger processing facility which I believe will solve the whole requirements.
Captain Adewale Ishola (Master mariner)
When you look at the rest of the world in terms of their port structure and composition, you will find out that there are only three agencies allowed in and this are the port health, immigration for the documentation of the crew in terms of the signing on and signing off including checking of shore pass, the last is the customs which are there for rummaging contraband and giving the clearance to load and to discharge and also for sailing. Any other agencies apart from these are based on invitation from the port authority when necessary; this is the only way out which I suggest that we also must adopt.
Akeem Afolabi [Clearing Agent]
I don’t think there is any need to eradicate or reduce the number of Government agencies in the port, because I believe every unit of the agency have their functions which they will discharge and give result to the Federal Government as the case may be and I will even rather prefer the Government to bring in more agencies like the Federal operation unit to come down to the port so that they can be on the examination base , to examine what they are doing their rather than disturbing containers on the way.
Ekene Obeleagu [Car Dealer]
My candid opinion is that anything we do in Nigeria, the Nigerian factor comes in and as a matter of fact, all these agencies have their specific roles. Like the customs are there, to make sure you that you do not bring in contraband and that you pay the right duty, the police are there for some certain things may be to arrest people who bring in ammunitions. But the point is that when the Nigeria factors come in, instead of these agencies doing their job effectively and efficiently, there will be looking for loopholes where they will now make money that is where the problem now comes in. A NAFDAC official instead of concentrating on is job will start looking for a means to make money from his position. I believe that if there is a way that all these agencies can be harmonize and have a common goal and objective there is no point of reducing the agencies. I believe if a taskforce is being sent to the port, definitely, it is another problem to the port industry
Mr C.J [Clearing Agent]
My own take on the issue is that with the Government agencies in our ports, thing are not moving the way it should. A container that is supposed to last two or three days will take more than a week because of the numerous agencies that we have in the port. The additional taskforce will even create more problems in the port. The policemen, customs, Navy, and one or two other agencies from the Government are enough to operate in the port.
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