After the suspension of the national strike over the removal of subsidy on petrol and the issues raised and lessons learnt from the six-day strike, another strike looms in the maritime sector over demurrage charges on goods caught up at the ports by the national strike.
A check at the ports shows that if urgent action is not taken to resolve the current issue of demurrage charges on cargoes which could not be cleared due to the national strike, it may result to another strike. The licensed customs agents under the aegis of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) are vehemently resisting the charges and had earlier staged a three-day protest at the ports and picketed some shipping companies and terminals.
According to Mr John Ofobike, Chairman, Apapa Chapter, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), the customs agents stopped picketing actions and are awaiting the outcome of the meetings between the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the shipping companies and the terminal operators on the matter.
Ofobike said that though some of the companies like APM Terminals, Apapa, had granted a 50 percent waiver on demurrage, but the agents were still insisting on a 100 percent waiver.
“We are asking for total waiver on demurrage, but we tell people to go about their normal duties for now,'' Ofobike said.
In the same vein, the General Secretary, Shippers' Association of Lagos State, Mr Jonathan Nicol, has warned that shippers (importers and exporters) might go on strike over the issue of demurrage.
Usually, the first three days after the discharge of cargo is free, while subsequent three days will attract demurrage of N750 per day for a 20-foot container and N1,500 for a 40-foot container.
And after six days of arrival of a cargo, the demurrage is N4,000 per day for a 20 foot container and N8,000 for a 40-foot container.
The demurrage issue, according to some stakeholders, will disrupt the fragile peace at the nation's ports and derail the reform agenda of government and its plan to achieve the ultimate 48-hour cargo clearance policy.
Apart from the impending strike, the reform agency has not been able to reduce the length of time needed to transact port business which is put at 24 days in the country, while it is 11 days in Senegal and 23 days in Gambia. In addition, port users and operators are yet to witness the creation of better business environment in the maritime sector, which is the second largest income earner to government after the oil sector.
The Federal Government had in the past expressed its commitment to execute the port reform agenda which is geared towards increased revenue generation, infrastructural development, regional competition within the ports in the sub-region and job creation.
But some maritime experts and stakeholders are wondering how these targets can be achieved when there is no substantial commercial port regulator and terminal operators are allowed to operate freely.
However, the Secretary of one of the factions of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Mr Ben Ndee, has urged the Federal Government to urgently appoint a substantive regulator to oversee activities at the ports.
Ndee said the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) as the landlord of the port, could be named as the regulator.
According to him, the present concession exercise at the ports “lack all it takes to protect the interest of Nigerian importers, majority of who are not conversant with the concession agreements''.
And Mr. Eugene Nweke, President, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), says that the maritime sector can generate N1.3 trillion annually, the Federal Government should shift attention to the maritime sector.
Nweke, however, suggests that all the revenue generating agencies in the maritime sector like the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) among others should scale up their activities and be more transparent.
The NAGAFF chieftain believes that the 24-hour new port operational policy is good, but warns that high charges and other bottlenecks at the ports are defeating the essence of the policy.
``Nigerian importers still pay the highest ocean freight in the sub-region,” he said.
According to him, Nigerian-bound cargoes from the Far East, attract as much as 10,000 dollars as freight, while similar cargoes to Ghana from the same Far East attract 6,000 dollars.
Nweke is, however, not happy that some of the terminal operators still lack cargo handling equipment.
In the same vein, Mr. Hakeem Olanrewaju, Chairman, Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) deplores the poor state of port facilities and the equipment used by the concessionaires at the ports.
Olanrewaju said some of the port concessionaires were still using most of the old cargo equipment (cargo-handling plants) handed over to them by the Nigerian Ports Authority.
“We are talking about the roads in the ports which I think the Federal Government is working drastically on that and the port concessionaires, they need to improve their facilities, their equipment, because most of the equipment they are using were the ones they took over from NPA,” he said.
He said the CRFFN was laying emphasis on training of freight forwarders who are predominantly found at the ports.
Olanrewaju said government was concerned about port reform and that training of freight forwarders who are major players at the ports would impact positively on the nation's economy.
Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) sees lack of proper co-ordination between the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the presence of multiple agencies at the ports as constituting the barrier to the 48-hour cargo clearance.
He said some of these agencies at the ports came up with ``unbudgeted and un-appropriated'' levies, penalties, charges and administrative fees.
“Everybody is claiming it has authority to be at the ports. That interference is the major reason for 48-hour not being met. Coupled also with human interface, 48-hour automatically is a mirage,'' Shittu said.
The ANLCA president said that if importers could make genuine declarations, customs would release their cargoes in 12 hours.
He, however, said that release by other agencies which would make an importer pass through the same processes, would expand the duration of cargo clearance.
“As at today, duration of cargo clearance has graduated to 10 days from 48 days that it used to be,'' Shittu said.
Speaking on ways to move the port industry forward, Chief Boniface Aniebonam, Founder, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) advised President Goodluck Jonathan to appoint Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigeria Customs Service as leading institutions at the ports.
Aniebonam criticised the inauguration of the Ports Monitoring Committee (PMC), describing the existence of the committee as another huge expenditure for the nation.
He said the inauguration of the committee became worrisome when government said ``the committee will stay as far as the problem persists at the ports”.
“We should use institutions like the NPA and the NCS to run the ports and not by Ad-hoc committees,'' he said.
