‘Presidential directive on maritime sector will boost revenue’

Practitioners and experts in the maritime industry have expressed optimism on the recent presidential directives and measures introduced by the new management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

They said the nation stands to reap from the sector as a result of the measures.

Reviewing the Federal Government’s efforts to sanitise the maritime sector and generate more earnings, the experts said if fully implemented, the key policies would not only boost government’s revenue earnings but also make the nation’s ports more competitive and entrench transparency.

The Managing Director of Port & Terminal Operators Nigeria Ltd (PTOL), Mrs Lizzie Ovbude, in her assessment of the reforms at the ports said in spite of the foreign exchange challenges arising from the economic recession, the reforms had started yielding good results, adding that the industry would soon witness a boom.

She said the industry had been made vibrant as terminal concessionaires were up in aggressive marketing to attract importers to their terminals.

She said: “It’s been quite revealing since the presidential directive; even our customers are now in high spirits, knowing that they have options now and nobody is forcing them to take a particular terminal.

“When monopoly was the order of the day, we lost a lot of cargo because a lot of the clients went to Cotonou, acquired terminals where they were taking their cargo to and then freight it in by road, so it was a loss to the Federal Government.”

With the new policy pronouncement, according to Mrs Ovbude, the high cost of business at the ports when monopoly held sway would reduce, thereby attracting many importers who had hitherto relocated to neighbouring countries.

When monopoly held sway, while other terminal operators paid to the Federal Government a throughput fee of $1 per tonnage of cargo handled out of their own service charge of $6.1, only Intels charged $22.1 and paid $4 to the Federal Government as throughput charge.