Nigeria is a maritime nation without a single vessel, says NAGAFF President

Chief Increase O. Uche, President, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and Board Member of Governing Council, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria is an authority in freight forwarding and Maritime issues. He spoke with SUCCESS DAMIAN recently. Excerpt:

Let us get your view on the performance of the Maritime Sector in 2018

Well, it was not all that uhuru, 2018 has come and gone, but we thank God that we are alive today. Speaking from the perspective of the freight forwarder, an assessment of the Maritime industry as a whole, I will simply say that what we really experienced throughout last year was what I could term as uncompleted project. Because from the various sectors of the maritime industry, we witnessed a lot of initiatives that were not completely executed.

From the NIMASA that serves as the lead agency of the maritime industry, there were a lot of proposals, issues that have to do with fleet acquisition. You know Nigeria is a maritime nation that cannot boast of a single vessel. So they have been battling on how to re-establish a fleet. So this lack of vessel, there are so many areas we seem to be missing out in the shipping industry globally.

Now welfare of seafarers has been an issue, giving them sea time experience.

Looking again the cabotage act and the implementation of the cabotage law, still remain another area of concern to the extent that disbursement of CDFF Fund to assist local ship owners, to get back on track, as to develop the shipping sector, has remained uncompleted.

Then you look at NPA, throughout 2018 also what prominently dominated discussion was the issue of reviewing the Port Concession Agreement. Of course it is no more news how the terminals were concessioned, the so-called concession agreement, all the promises that were made before 2015 December, of enhancing shipping operations, the privatization of those terminals so that the port would be user friendly, Then getting the port to be competitive in the area of pricing, that is port cost which has to do with overhead cost of bringing cargo including the freight and then clearance charges, looking at the entire scenario you discover that instead of local shipping charges of clearing the cargo to be cheaper like before the port concession, we have not really achieved that.

All over Nigeria what we have are River ports, Apapa here is a River port, the same as Tin Can, we never had a deep seaport, the first one we proposed was in 2000, six years after the establishment of NAGAFF when Oba of Badagry was visited but right now that one is no longer feasible because Cotonou is already building one close to Badagry, the proposed area. Cargo landing in the port find it difficult leaving the port, so we have inventory building up at the port terminals, thereby causing congestion and delays that bring about demurrage and storage charges. The port is supposed to be a transit point.

If you look at Customs, we have seen from early 2000 to date there have been a kind of rearrangement of procedure, issues that subsist in the cargo clearance Procedure is still there particularly Customs Licensing Regulation, because of all the reforms Nigerian Customs procedure, the customs licensing administration still remains the same. Single window is still an issue. To the extent that we still discover smuggling through an approved border area, because if smuggling could be going on in such a place like seaports where a lot of securities are involved, there is a problem. I still term all these as uncompleted project in the maritime sector.

CRFFN, the reform benefit that freight forwarders gained from the reforms that started in 2003 to date was the establishment of the CRFFN. We believe with the current composition of that board, we have government appointees, elected members, we make sure all the 5 registered associations are fully represented in the council, it is an inclusive council. Within the first 82 days we made an indelible mark by the structure that is being put in place now, we hope that in the next 3,4,5 months now, that we cover a lot of grounds.

When you look at NAFDAC, it is another government agency, cargo clearance out of the port has to do with time, you need to go to Yaba, you stamp entry the first time, complete examination, you move to yaba again to do your second stamping. Though they have decided to build some office around here, but it is not working out well. A lot of issues that need to be trashed as it concerns NAFDAC operation, but SON is trying, they have gotten to a certain level.

Government should summon that political will to see that our ports are at a level to make the maritime industry competitive, port that require even the use of bigger vessels, big vessels that take up to 15,000 containers. No vessel that takes 15,000 to 20,000 containers can access those ports because of Drought.

When you look at the situation now, how would you compare it with what obtained during the time of Jonathan?

Looking at the time of Jonathan and this current period, it appears that the government seem not to understand the contributions of maritime industry to the development of the economy. What we are experiencing at the port today did not start today, it is a spillover of the wrong structuring of the port and poor port management.

The only government agency that is manned by professional is the Shippers Council and that is why they are doing well. So we need a reversal, let government go back to the drawing board there is no government that cannot get it right especially, if they want to use the Maritime industry for the diversification of the economy.

What have you done since coming on board of your administration to ensure professionalism in the business of freight forwarding sub sector?

I assumed office not even up to a year and half now, but I am an old crankshaft, I have been in the system and I very much understand the objective of establishing our association. We established an academy, Wharf Academy where we train our members. During my tenure I try to revive the academy, it is still on, again the radio programme we had before, the TV programme which was NAGAFF Cable Watch which was also moribund, we also revived it when I was still acting, when I was still deputy National President. Information service is part of the work we do as freight forwarders, we need to update our members, let them to know the current trends in carrying out their businesses as freight forwarders, because freight forwarding is an international business.

So since my tenure, we have been able to encourage that because these are the areas where the strength of the association lies. Human resource development, encouraging professionalism and the information dissemination, regular update of our members, belonging to some other networks, we are affiliated to Nigeria Economic Summit Group, we belong to NASIMA, then as member of CRFFN which is the regulatory body for freight forwarding in Nigeria, by that particular membership, we are equally member of FIATA, TIAKA, and others, So we have been doing a lot, holding regular meetings with our members through press releases, position papers. And again through our advocacy role, we have been making serious inputs in government policies, we criticize them constructively. 

We draw government attention to other issues, helping government agencies in organizing seminars, Shippers Council, Standard Organization of Nigeria, we go round the country to take part in sensitization and enlightenment of Nigerians.

For us if the government really understands the importance of the port sector, particularly the services of the freight forwarder, the freight forwarder serves as the economic nerve centre of the country, in fact what is actually impeding our progress is the fact that government is yet to acknowledge the critical role we perform, because generally and globally, the freight forwarder is referred to as the barometer for measuring the economic activities, from the manufacturing sector, to delivery of cargo to the market, to movement of raw material to the industries. Cargo movements nationally, locally, is the job of the freight forwarder.

How has the recent rehabilitation of roads around Apapa improve port operation?

We are still waiting because, the traffic gridlock is still there, instead of them maintaining one single lane as to where these articulated vehicles lined up on top of the bridge, it is now double, initially it was single lane, that was beginning occupied by the trailers, but even as the road repairs have gotten to an extent, because to me there are a lot of politics in this road repair, when they started, knowing fully well that the contractors behind it or financiers, Dangote, Flourmills and Nigeria Port Authority, NPA doesn’t operate fleet, but Dangote and Flourmill, they operate fleets, and even when the roads were still bad, and the issue of rehabilitating of the roads came up, then from the onset, there are dedicated lanes for Dangote and Flourmill vehicles there, they ply those routes unhindered. To other port users, it has been a serious problem that the haulage companies, the problem is still there, because the cost of moving cargo either 20 feet or 40 feet, to Ebuta Meta or Ladipo Market, ASPMDA, it is still the same, from N400,000, N600,000, N800,000 and above, it has not decreased, so for now we have not seen any change or improvement in the entire system.

Has government ploughed enough money back to the port, for its maintenance?

What government should be doing, like NPA, is semiautonomous, I don’t think they run a budget whereby the government move money and give NPA for their operation. Government is not supposed to again, plough money to the port because it has been concessioned, what they have now is private hands manning the terminals. NPA was collecting 7% surcharge on duty payable on imports, NIMASA is also semiautonomous, they equally generate revenue through the 3% charges on the gross registered tonnage of every vessel, so if all these agencies of government are already empowered, government don’t need to putting money apart from road construction which they said the ministry of power, works and housing because their operation is different from transport, the ministry that is in charge of construction  of roads should go ahead and construct roads, so it is not the duty of NPA to do roads.