Wrong leadership appointments slowing down port growth — ANLCA boss

  National President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Tony Nwabunike, in this interview, with Eguono Odjegba sai...

 

National President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Tony Nwabunike, in this interview, with Eguono Odjegba said the time has come for Nigerians to challenge the government to upgrade operational and logistics infrastructure in the maritime industry.  He decried the politicization of the port industry and said the Nigerian Port is the least developed in the sub region. In this interview, he also provided information on ANLCA’s discussion with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, and Minister of State for Transportation.

YOU visited the SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha and the Minister of State of Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki and just last week, you also visited the Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, Dr. Osita Aboloma. Are these visits politically motivated or business in nature?

Let me say that the visits are part of the highpoints of our activities for the year 2020. ANLCA has a crucial stake in the port industry, and we have a whole lot of things to discuss for the growth of the port economy. We believe that wrong critical appointments is slowing down growth of the industry and as stakeholders urge government to improve on the integrity of appointments, we want to see professionals not those who will come and take one year to learn.

 

READ ALSO:Minister urges religious leaders to curb vices among youths

One other interest we have is total modernisation of our ports. If you look at ports in the sub region, you will find that none can compare with Ghana ports or Port of Tema. We have only been talking about ports traffic gridlock, we have not been talking about dumping of containers, we have not been talking about the concessionaires and shipping companies doing whatever they like to do.

We have not been talking about lack of scanners in the ports, we have not been talking about multiplicity of government agencies at the ports, or incessant influx of substandard and fake products. These are the concerns taking us around. We are going to talk about the trucking and challenges, talk about plant quarantine, about NICIS II, whether it’s going to be seamless and how customs should harmonize.

Transaction processes

The SGF actually promised that the Federal Government is taking steps to facilitate completion of the job on ports access roads. We briefed him about the security agencies in the port and the border posts and we actually told him that opening of the border is long overdue because it is a temporary issue but today almost 2,000 cargoes are trapped and these are economic wastages.

We also discussed issues of customs indiscriminate multiple alerts and they mentioned harmonizing the processes into a one stop shop. We are concerned that 100 percent physical examination leads to lost man hours and the SGF actually mentioned that scanners will soon be back at our ports.

Were the issues of shipping companies and their operations part of your detailed discussions?

Yes, we mentioned the need for all shipping companies and terminal operators to automate their transaction processes and on that note, we actually asked some salient questions, one was which ministry is supervising shipping companies and terminal operators. That Shippers’ Council has actually been given the powers to treat the case of shipping companies and terminal operators very decisively. You find out that most of these companies are foreign owned and interest of the nation is not paramount to them. But actually, our major concern for embarking on this journey was about the Lagos ports roads traffic gridlock.

Okay, what were the specific interventions you presented to those you visited?

One, that there are no empty containers holding bay where trucks can offload the empties for onward transfer. The SGF for instance asked us to visit to enable him dig for more information. ANLCA is very willing to support in that direction. We mentioned the dingy doggy affairs between NPA and the concessionaires, about vessel queues and how NPA appeared to be helpless, and we reiterated our proposal for temporary cargo diversion to Eastern Ports, which final location terminates in that area.

The Minister of State for Transportation told us that the ministry has put so much money on the rail project and that very shortly final solution to the port gridlock will come.
So far SON is the only department of government in the port concerned with standards that you have visited, what were the issues of interest?

Some of you may remember that SON has been in the news lately, with some people saying SON has not been living up to expectation. So we took a stand to verify by visiting its management. We had firsthand information from the director general of SON and his directors. We took a decision that SON and importers together with other critical stakeholders shall be having regular meetings to brainstorm and synergize.

So our visit to SON provided both sides a plank for cordial working relationship, not just with ANLCA but with other freight forwarders. The DG SON showed us many seizures and evidences of destruction of fake goods and you know sometimes we may not actually know that they are doing a whole lot of work, we saw things for ourselves.

Did the SGF provided you with a hint of how soon the borders will be opened?

He said the Federal Government is doing everything possible to reopen the border posts, he didn’t say when precisely. Our ports are overstretched and we are actually supporting NPA to divert some cargoes to other ports. Lagos port is full and the alternative port should be Calabar and Warri. We urge the Federal Government to expedite action on the dredging of Calabar Port and Nigerians need to know who the contractor is.

Calabar is a critical seaport in the sense that it has road network linking Ebonyi and Benue states, upwards to the north eastern states. So it will go a long way in solving the problem of decongesting the Lagos ports. Our policies, infrastructure and system is backward, we need to put our house in order and make our ports more business friendly. Not only our seaports but our land borders and airports.

Would you say that Ghana ports are also better organized?

Truck operators access ports in Ghana with their biometrics captured with their thumbprint, the gate automatically opens for them.

Do you think in the next ten years, Nigeria can achieve that status of automation that Ghana has accomplished?

You are talking about Ghana, have you been to the ports of Cote d’Ivoire before? The problem we are having in this country is that the government speaks much and doing far less. Also our presidency is not putting the right people in the right places to take tackle these problems. In Nigeria, it is all about party politics, religious or ethnic politics, as such the beginning of our problems not receiving solutions lie with wrong appointments.

The implementation of Professional Operating Fee, POF, has generated so much dust, from projected N5billion start off target to issues of legitimacy of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, CRFFN. Where do you stand?

I was the pioneer chairman of CRFFN, and at that time, we did not collect POF but now we have a new chairman, a new registrar and they are starting a new thing. The N5 billion they are saying may be a projection and we don’t know how they configured it. Even if they get such amount, they are saying a huge chunk of it is going into TSA account. Out of that they plan to spend on training and capacity building. I think it is a work in progress template, it is too early to make long term prouncements.

It is interesting to know that ANLCA is clearly in positive partnership with SON, would you know how much has accrued from fees payable to MANCAP and SONCAP?
I am not director general of SON. I may not know how much they have collected but SON gives you receipt for every single money paid and such monies goes into the Treasury Single Account. ANLCA will kick against demand for un-receipted payments.

Did the DG SON tell you how his agency is tackling issues of incessant importation of substandard items into the country?

I use to be skeptical about SON until we visited them. Nigerians must learn to value human lives and to do things right because a man who imports fake tyres does not know who is going to buy them. It might be his relatives or friends. We must change our attitude towards money. From the time of Akanya through Odumodu till now, SON has been going through transformation.

Here is another vibrant director general, I think the only problem he has is not letting people know how much work they have been doing. They are doing a lot to fight fake importation. SON is fighting battle on all fronts; I understand that rod manufacturers will present the original samples to SON whenever they visit their factories, but go ahead to manufacture substandard rods as soon as SON turns its back. Now SON has taken it upon itself to be visiting markets to fish out the fake ones because they must put their names on their products. And if SON takes it for test and it fails, they seal up such factory.

So what is your commitment to ensure that your members do not patronize clients who are importers of substandard products?

An agent does not know what an importer has in his box. It is at the point of the bill of lading you get to know what the container is carrying. Examination is done based on what the bill of lading has said. Apart from that we do due diligence and have the right to refuse to clear any container we suspect is carrying substandard items. We will not cut corners, that is why I said the business of standard concerns all of us. Let me also tell you that over time, the customs brokers have been victims of substandard importation by importers who, in some cases, failed to disclose to us the actual content or degree of compliance with extant rules like SON Conformity Assessment Programme, SONCAP.

This task is daunting, but we are not relenting because customs brokers have suffered an estimated cumulative losses amounting to over N20b in the last ten years for undertaking to clear goods discovered to be substandard. So, what we are trying to do is to begin to sensitize our members to understand the evil in encouraging fake products and to understand the laws about liability and prosecution.

Why is ANLCA opposed to Customs N2trillion revenue target for 2020?

All over the world, no customs service is given revenue target except Nigeria. This year the FG gave Nigeria Customs N1.5 trillion revenue target, but the CGC said he would make it N2 trillion and you say you are discouraging import and you have over 41 items banned from accessing forex. That is kindergarten logic.  Recently fertilizer and rice were banned from coming in, so from where is customs going to make N2trillion if not through reckless official railroad? This government says it is encouraging local manufacturing meaning, it means a commitment to de-emphasize importation. So, how do you now meet your target? You are reducing import lists and you are increasing revenue from import proceeds. To balance the equation means to railroad importers and clearing agents and freight forwarders through arbitrary valuation; through over taxation. We are overstretched, I think customs is overstretched too and they have forgotten that they are supposed to be facilitating trade, to secure goods and services, to secure our border posts and not to start chasing revenue through impunity and official harassment.

Would you by any mean be familiar with shortcomings that have delayed the implementation of temporary diversion of cargoes to the eastern port by the NPA?
It could for more consultation and maybe trying to do the right thing and how best to do so. ANLCA is in support of the temporary cargo diversion. If we have vessels at the anchorage for twenty days, first it is an economic wastage; it is equally not good for the port. The issues are very clear; the congestion did not start today. Nigeria likes addressing problems when it has gotten out of hands. What NPA should have done was to have a serious sensitization for the stakeholders like the importers and network with other international trade organisations and say please Lagos Port is congested and if you must bring goods to Nigeria, reroute to Port Harcourt, Warri or Calabar, pending we can decongest the area. It is not fair that somebody who has his factory or warehouse here, whose supply and demand is in Lagos, you now take his goods to Port Harcourt.

Is our problem limited to congestion of the Lagos ports?
Warri and Calabar should be dredged. In fact, contracts have been awarded but the contracts are not working.  Nigerian Ports are shallow and as a result cannot take big vessels, this has affected shipping business and by extension the national economy.

What is your vision for ANLCA and how much have you done?
My priority is to get our members chartered. I want to say that we are now working on that. We are currently at the National Assembly and by the time we get it done we will have an institution where our members will be trained to be in line with the NICIS 2. We are also collaborating with CRFFN on training of our members.

The post Wrong leadership appointments slowing down port growth — ANLCA boss appeared first on Vanguard News.