CEO INTERVIEW We’re winning cargoes from neighbouring countries but... – Shippers’ Council ES
Can you give an overview of the Nigerian Shippers Council? Generally, we have been entrusted with the economic side of issues which Daily Trust is well aware of. We are amazed with the growth of Daily Trust and we will like to partner with it to disseminate information.
The Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) which was created as far back as 1978 is an agency of the Federal Ministry of Transportation. There was a World Bank proposal for an influencing force to balance the equilibrium between those who provided the shipping services and those that utilised the services. In all relationships, there is always an imbalance which could hurt trade: for example, labour and capital.
We have large conglomerates of shipping companies, carriers, banks, insurance companies and we have large terminal operators: that is the ports and harbours, and they all stock against somebody who imports. So the World Bank thought that there should be some force to represent the cargo interest because of what use was the ship or the terminal without cargoes. They are actually looking for these cargoes and the cargoes are the ones not actually represented, which means the benefits for international trade of the country will suffer if the imbalance continues.
We have the Shippers Council all over in Africa and in Europe to represent that equation. From 1978 till now, many things have changed.
What have been your role and achievements in the maritime industry?
We do that through many ways, like the court for instance, when there is a dispute between shippers, it used to take a long time for the adjudication. This is largely because the judge and the lawyers were not familiar with the concept of Admiralty Law. It was not taught in the university then until recently when NSC tried to introduce it through the National Universities Commission (NUC) in the commercial aspect of the law. We had judges’ conference where we took some concepts and introduced it to our judges and now, Nigerian Admiralty Law is getting recognition and faster adjudication. This is one area where we have intervened. Then the arrest of ships by judges which causes the loss of millions of dollars. So we had to introduce the arrest of ships through the New York Convention to judges and now Nigeria is no more the grave yard of ships as the European Union termed it to be.
About two years back, NSC was appointed as a regulator at the ports. We are interested in the economic aspect of the benefits, especially on the contribution of shipping and transportation to the economy. Our duty at NSC is cut out for us: we are to ensure efficiency of our ports, we are to ensure competitiveness of our ports and adequacy of our facilities and by doing that we should create a seamless transportation. Nigeria is in competition with our neighbouring ports.
Countries are introducing new ways of doing things and we shouldn’t be an exception. In modern places, you don’t even see anybody yet tonnes of cargoes are being cleared, but here we have people everywhere at the ports with corruption, cumbersome and costly procedures. With the intervention of the council, we have been able to reduce that. The first thing we did was in the Standard Operating Procedure. Before then, the ports were like headless chickens wondering from place to place, even when there were procedures.
With the working relationship we have with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the UNDP, and ICPC, we are now able to bring our Standard Operating Procedure which enables ports, that if a ship comes in, only the Immigration Service will board, others like NIMASA will do their assessment without boarding the vessel. These are indicators that Nigerian ports are becoming efficient in the international line. We are gradually winning cargoes from our competitors except for the recession. One indication is our neighbours: Niger and Chad, who for bizarre reasons, import their cargoes through far away Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana and other places, we urged them to start coming.
We are also part of the Presidential Business Enabling Environment; which means we have to make the ports friendly, competitive, and no delay. It means you should evacuate your cargo as soon as they arrive as the ports are not a storage place or a store; so we always emphasise on the dwelling time for cargo, which is essential. Time is of essence and that is what we are trying to do.
We are looking at the ease of doing business which is also transparent. Once one is transparent, the huge revenue leakage will not be there as we have to entrench efficiency and simplicity of these procedures then remove bottlenecks.
The volume of export is rising now and is very healthy looking. Am sure when all these things are put in place, it will be better. We are talking about cluster of industries; but we are promoting two other important infrastructures which are the dry port and the truck transit parks which are integrated.
What is the significance of the dry ports and the truck transit parks you are promoting?
This is bringing shipping to the doorsteps of shippers and an impact to the economy of where these things are sited. We have legacy dry port projects in Isialangwa, Ibadan, Jos, Funtua, Kano Maiduguri and Kaduna. This is as a result of intensive research made by our consultant, a German firm to see the viability of the projects.
That means you can consign your cargo from anywhere in the world with a bill of laden, a transport instrument to read for instance, China to Kaduna. The seaport is merely a transit point, with the help of the Federal Government’s policy to link every seaport with rail; it means directly from the ship, the container can be taken to Kaduna by train.
That of Jos is 65 per cent complete now; it is just waiting for one or two things to work. With the support the Kaduna State Government, we are envisaging that in the next three months, that of Kaduna will be completed. In Jos, the rail side to the port is the point now; it is also located near the airport.
In Funtua for example, there is a vast agricultural belt, so we are trying to make it an Agric Free Zone just as we have Oil and Gas Free Zone. Hence, processed cotton and other agricultural produce will have value added to them and it will jump up the export potentials. Our landlocked neighbours like Niger and the Chad are very focused on the completion of these inland ports so that their cargo can be dropped in Funtua due to proximity.
This is the same thing with the truck transit park. Trucks are parked indiscriminately and it does not happen in other countries but here. We have huge deficit of transport infrastructure so we are mulling the idea of truck transit and parks along the highways where we will have hostels, restaurants, filling stations, mechanic workshops and other facilities just as in other countries. This is where travellers and trucks will stay before continuing their journey. We have gotten land in Obollo Afor in Enugu State and in Lokoja in Kogi State and others are coming. Shippers Council is promoting them, as we are not the ones to build them, so we are calling for private sector participation in doing that.
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