Determined to ensure transparency, efficiency and timeliness in operations in the nation’s sea ports, the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has launched a battle against port concessioners, over their penchant for raising port tariffs and charges without approval by government, BusinessDay has learnt.
Furthermore, since the terminal operators took over cargo handling operations at the ports in 2006 and 2007, the old indolence and inefficiency by government workers have been replaced by unduly high charges which helped to make doing business at Nigerian ports one of the most expensive in the world.
“Concession has resulted to some modest achievements, especially in the areas of operational efficiency, infrastructural development, increased throughput and safety of cargo and others.
“However, the gains achieved from the concession are being eroded by excessive and high charges, abuse of concession agreements, arbitrary introduction of, and increase in charges and undue delays in cargo clearance and oppressive policies and practices by some government agencies,” said Hassan Bello, executive secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, in a recent brief to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), a copy of which was seen by BusinessDay.
Bello accused shipping companies and other service providers of consistently flouting government approvals on charges, by unilateral increasing charges such as Shipping Line Agency Charge (SLAC), Container Cleaning Charge and Documentation Fees.
According to him, some of the approved charges at the ports include documentation, amendment of manifest on request, container demurrage, refund on deposit for container, container cleaning fee, terminal handling charges, which shipping companies were expected to cede to terminal operators after concession.
Shipping companies rather changed the nomenclature to SLAC, which is illegal, he said.
Bello listed the unauthorised charges as including SLAC, terminal handling charges, delivery charges, position for Custom examination and labour, storage, scanning fee and logistics for scanning.
He said the Council issued two regulatory notices to terminal operators and shipping companies to address some observed anomalies in the system. “Rather than adhere to the notices, terminal operators proceeded to court, to challenge the mandate of the NCS as the port economic regulator, while shipping companies argued that the processes leading to the notice was inconclusive.
“In its judgement, the Federal High Court late last year, affirmed the NSC as economic regulator; declared the SLAC illegal and ordered that the shipping companies and terminal operators should refund to the Federal Government, the accumulated illegal charges,” the NSC boss said.
BusinessDay search reveals that the new NPA leadership says ‘enough is enough’ and it is threatening to bark and bite. The NPA, as signatory to the concession agreements, is now pushing the port operators to provide government approval for all increases in tariff and port charges and where they fail, the operators must revert to the old rates and the over-charged fees refunded.
Furthermore, the NPA’s position, which is backed by clause seven (7) of the port concession agreement, insisted that henceforth, there must be transparency in the manner the operators deal with their customers, such that all port operators must extensively publish all their tariff and charges.
Reacting to this, Bolaji Akinola, spokesperson of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), who told our correspondent in an interview that STOAN would not comment on a matter that is still in court, said that “terminal operators do not increase tariff illegally, rather they follow the rules as laid down in the concession agreement and we have been following the agreement judiciously.”
In his view, Boniface Aniebonam, founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), who said that the cost of clearing cargo in Nigerian ports has increased by 500 percent in the last 11 years of port reform initiated by government to reduce cost, blamed service providers and government agencies’ tariff regime and billing system for the difficulties experienced by shippers.
“Port reform is supposed to make our ports friendly in terms of cost of doing business at the ports but Nigerian ports are now rated as among the most expensive to do business. The concession agreement mandates the Federal Government, through the NPA, to provide power for the terminal operators to reduce cost, but some of these terminals are not even connected to the national grid. This results to high cost of generating power, which is directly or indirectly passed to shippers,” Aniebonam said.
Kayode Farinto, the National Publicity Secretary, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), who stated that Nigerian ports are losing business to high cost and cargo clearing bottlenecks, observed that there is a lot of rent-seeking among service providers and agencies of government.
These operators, he says, ride on deficiency in the system to enrich themselves, including the officers of government agencies like the Customs, who promote their personal interest and short-change government of its revenue.
Farinto lamented that shippers were forced to pay storage rent and container demurrage to terminal operators and shipping companies on public holidays and Sundays, when Customs were not on ground to clear goods. He however said he was optimistic that the new 24-hour policy would help address some of the deficiencies in the system.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
