Lucky Amiwero, (President, Council of Managing Directors)
It is the Customs that is causing the problem; it’s the circular that they sent out that is causing congestion. The circular contravenes the Customs and Excise Management Act. They say they want to be seizing goods once there is a discrepancy. That is not what the law says. We are in the era of destination inspection and not CEMA. It is too old; there is no destination inspection under CEMA. They should not insist on seizing our goods. The law says that once there is discrepancy, they should issue debit note (DN) and now they want to seize. The Central Bank of Nigeria has also told Customs so, but they won’t listen. You want to stop scanning and start conducting physical examination on containers, is that part of destination inspection. So, which one are we to believe, are we going back to the era of pre shipment inspection or are we still practising destination inspection? If Customs stops the new practice, congestion will stop. This is what is causing congestion
Amoke Amusa (Clearing Agent)
The customs are the cause of congestion in Lagos Ports and I can tell you categorically that its only Lagos ports that are experiencing congestion, Port Harcourt is free from congestion.
The customs are now to start physical examination and we are complaining of congestion. What assurance do we have that if the physical scanning starts there wont be more congestion in the ports than what it is now.
Finally, I must say that if we want to clear our goods in 48 hours, then measures that will assist every port user conveniently should be used because if destination inspection will be stopped for physical examination of goods, corruption has come to stay.
Musa Aliu (Dockworker)
As a dockworker, we are the one that discharge the containers that come in. As I am talking to you, most of the terminals here in Tin can ports are congested and they need to be decongested for us to carry out our duties.
Coming to your question, I think the Customs are responsible because they stopped the destination inspection people and also part of the blame is on the destination inspection team here too, because they waste too much time in the scanning process.
I think the two parties should sit and dialogue and then call on other stakeholders involved on how to do team work that will help 48 pours clearance and decongest Lagos ports.
Yinka Folorunsho (Clearing Agent)
The causes of congestion in the ports are numerous at the moment and I will like to highlight the important ones below:
•Lack of equipment to ease the discharge of cargoes on side of the terminal operators.
•Lack of space for containers’ refund
•Logistics problems as related to inter agencies involved, because scrutiny is always too much in these terminals
•Manpower is lacking as well
Nicholas Onwumere (Stakeholder)
Congestion in Lagos ports can be summarized into two major reasons: the unfavourable policy and logistics problems
Favourable economic policy on imports which favours goods such as fertilizers, cement, rice, fish and other general cargoes of heterogeneous nature as well as containerised goods. This policy generated high demands for imports which in turn attracted more ships into Lagos ports.
Operationally, the port terminals are currently handling vessels of longer length and higher tonnages in terms of cargo and Gross Registered Tonnages (GRT). Some of their vessels spend more days at the berths due to volume of cargoes being discharged or due to the rate of discharge arising from the rate of efficiency and productivity of the ships’ inbuilt facilities.
Any delay at the terminal by a ship affects the waiting time of another vessel on arrival which all affect the turn around time. The rate of documentation of discharged cargoes at the Lagos ports is averagely low as all cargoes are transported by road.
Dr. Zebulon Ikokide (Shipping Manager, ABTL)
It can be attributed to many factors, like documentation and delay on the side of the clearing agents and importers. The bureaucratic action taking place is also a problem.
The Comptroller General of customs has been on the issue of congestion for sometime now and he has dialogued with some stakeholders on the issue on how best to tackle the issue of congestion faced by Lagos ports.
There is no cargo space considering the consistent cargo entry to Lagos ports, as well as some terminals that do not have adequate cargo handling equipment to carry out operations in our ports here in Lagos.
Usman Sanusi (President, NAGAFF)
The current congestion in our ports is a serious problem that needs urgent attention of the government particularly with falling oil prices.
The research units of the Customs and the federal ministry of finance should wake up and face the challenges ahead.
Aside from the shortcomings of concessionaires, insincerity on the part of some importers and their agents, I think the Customs need to take a second look at some of their recent guidelines governing the clearance of goods out of our ports.
The present situation in out ports inevitably leads to a net massive flow of foreign currency which also impacts negatively on the nation’s foreign reserves. Mr. President, Dr.Shamsudeen, Prof. Soludo, CG Ahmed, I hope you are reading this.
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