Bolade Lawrence (ANLCA Headquarters)
So far, I think the ports have been performing well, to certain extent, the privatisation of the ports has given room for healthy competition among the service providers, unlike in those days where NPA maintained the monopoly, nowadays if you discover that certain port is not favourable, you can as well try other ports. Apart from these, in the area of the customs, I think they are not doing badly until recently when the change of baton in the customs headship took place. Initially, the fear of the man coming in was too much for the officers, but now it is as if the officers have jettisoned the fear and they are now back to their former ways of lateness to work, extortion, and so on. The road leading to the port is being given attention now and we can see that there are efforts to resuscitate the rail system; this is also a good pointer to port development. However, one annoying thing now is that most of the agencies posted to the ports are now looking for ways to make money from the port by all means, even those saddled with the responsibilities that do not have to do with money, they are now charging port users, and at the end of the day it all adds to the cost of doing business at the ports and the bulk of it is passed to the final consumers of the goods.
Dr. Boniface Aniebonam (Founder, NAGAFF)
There has been a system collapse at the ports and nothing is working in terms of rule of law, when Col Hameed Ali first came into the Nigeria Customs Service, there was hope, but as it is now we don't know the direction we are going?. We are in the era of change, but let me ask you, what has changed? Has anything changed in the customs? We still have multiple alerts from customs, it is being abused and the CGC is not addressing the matter. For me, I think the spate of corruption at the ports is unimaginable, what is the essence of port concession if I may ask, in 2006 we expected that the cost of doing business at the port would have dropped by 30%, but today where are we? Rather the cost is going higher and uncompetitive, the port concession has not been encouraging because of the high cost of doing business at the port, our ports are no longer attractive and this has led to importers diverting to other neighbouring ports.
Dr. Segun Musa (NAGAFF Chair, Airport)
The Nigerian port system is yet to reflect any added value under democracy and privatization of core sub sector like NPA further declined efficiency. The greatest undoing of government under democracy is the privatization instead of deregulation. Investors are also afraid to partner in the sector due to government unstable policy and lack of political will to upgrade basic infrastructures that can enhance efficiency.
Pius Ujubonu (?SSA to ANLCA President)
Nigeria's maritime sector under democratic dispensation has experienced some significant improvement .Concessioning of the ports brought about improved facilities, increased cargo throughput and reduced ship dwell time in our ports. The Nigeria Custom Service has brought about reasonable input in her clearance process; most particularly automation of her clearance mechanism. In the area of government, there has been a marginal improvement but there has been undue government interference and also inconsistency, in fact, incessant policy summersaults. This has impeded the facilitation of international trade. Nigeria government making customs an exclusive revenue collection agency and regular challenge of revenue targets, subjects our port clearance process to market place as against a transit point. Lack of openness in the customs valuation process makes our exchange control system a non-predictable one .But, generally there has been an improvement in this sector under democratic dispensation.
Inuwa Abdullahi (NARTO)
It has recorded success. It was during democracy that ports were concessioned, additional terminals and jetties were built, e.g PTML. Talking about democracy since 1999 I will also say that abandoned jetties are now in full operation with the activities of tank farms. As a result of the volume importation of containerised cargo many bonded terminals were also built under democracy. So many projects have been put in place like the building of NIMASA Resource Centre, NPA Administration office in Apapa and more importantly the Free Trade Zones across the country.
Oladipupo Olayoku (Stakeholder)
Port industry has recorded some level of success since 1999 because issues bordering on port congestions have been addressed because it was giving the country a lot of concern. I will say port concession is yet a complete success but at least we have been able to move from point A to point B but we are yet to reach our destination point. There has been a lot of development so far in the ports but we need skilled manpower to drive the sector forward in order to aid trade facilitation. The business environment is a bit friendlier than it was in the past, but above all I will say democracy has effected so many changes to the maritime industry even though we are yet to get there.
Joseph Atoloye (Clearing Agent)
Port industry has achieved a lot under democracy in numerous ways. During the time of NPA as the sole operator at the ports, it took up to three weeks before goods can leave the ports, but today you will find out that under three days goods are cleared out of the ports. There has been a better working condition at the ports unlike before when it was under military rule. Back then it was very difficult to doing business in our ports but we thank God things have changed. But despite the achievements under democracy, a lot needs to be put in place to address some of the grey areas that still exist. Corruption for instance is endemic in the system and there is need to eradicate the bottlenecks as well and I would like a situation whereby human contact at the ports is streamlined by the government.
Cyril Okoro (POTEMAN)
There is no proper premise upon which we can assess the maritime sector since 1999. The Nigerian Shippers Council before now was not a regulator, but today it has emerged a regulator without a proper blueprint for effective performance and it is from the blueprint we can assess our port performance. The Nigerian maritime sector is however operating in an environment which is unfriendly to the port operators, even during democracy because there is no policy that guide the agency to perform better. No doubt there are activities in sector but productivity and responsiveness to expectations are very poor.
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