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The Organised Private Sector (OPS) says poor state of equipment at the Nigerian ports and multiplicity of checkpoints by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) are major issues affecting manufacturers and importers, discouraging investors from further pumping money into key sectors of the economy.
“The current state of some equipment in use by some operators at the ports is worrisome,” said Iyalode Alaba Lawson, national president, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) at a press briefing in Lagos on Monday.
“There are several ports with inadequate and old equipment, non-functioning scanners and required automation systems to facilitate prompt clearances of containers and goods,” Lawson said.
According to her, this was confirmed during a recent on-the-spot visit to sea and border posts in South West by NACCIMA as a member of the National Trade Facilitation Committee (NTFC).
She stressed the need for Nigeria to embrace modern technology at the ports to speed clearance processes and provide confidence to investors.
Nigeria initiated ease of doing business strategies in 2016 to reduce multiplicity of taxes, duplication of functions by government agencies and parastatals as well as reduction in the amount of time taken to get business things done.
This culminated into the setting up of Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), which in turn evolved the National Action Plan (NAP).
There was an 11-point reform agenda treated in NAP 2.0, which dealt with simplification of processes involved in starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, getting electricity, getting credit, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, selling to government, entry & exit of people and trading within Nigeria.
In terms of port reforms, the government initiated measures to begin joint examination of import cargo in Lagos led by the Nigeria Customs Service, as well as compliance with 48-hour SLA for automated scheduling process by pre-shipment inspection agents.
The result was that Nigeria moved 24 places in the World Bank Doing Business Index in 2017, from 169th to 145th. This placed the country among top 10 performers in the last 12 months.
However, it seems these are just progress made on the paper, as the private sector believes it is not yielding the expected results in reality.
“We recall the Presidential Executive Order which directed the dismantling of all customs checkpoints outside 40 kilometres of international borders and the Port Areas across the country. Regrettably, this order has not been complied with,” said Babatunde Paul Ruwase, president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in Lagos.
“We receive frequent complaints about the actions of the Federal Operating Unit (FOU) and the CG Task Force, stopping containers on the highways in violation of the Executive Order. We demand that this executive order be strictly complied with in line with the ease of doing business agenda of government,” Ruwase noted.
He regretted that though the value of Nigerian trade with the rest of the world was over $60 billion in 2017, indigenous ship owners were not beneficiaries of this story.
“Given the developmental value of indigenous participation in any sector, we would like to stress the need to scale up indigenous participation in the Nigerian shipping sector. The sector is almost 90 percent foreign. I am aware that there have been several policies put in place to ensure the realisation of this objective. But implementation has been a big issue,” he added.
He stressed the need to look at the National Shipping Policy Act of 1987-2003, the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act of 2003-2007, the Cabotage Implementation Guideline of 2007, the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) Guideline, the NIMASA Act 2007, the Merchant Shipping Act, and the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act of 2010 once again for implementation.
