By Steve Agbota [email protected]
Nigeria is considered as one of the most challenging countries to do business due to endemic corruption.
Corruption today is so endemic and rooted so deeply in the nation’s maritime industry that Nigeria is losing over $10.2 billion annually even as it contributes substantially to the nation’s inflation, which presently stood at 22.79 per cent.
Daily Sun learnt that the money, lost to the illicit financial flows at ports, weighed heavily on the economy as up to about $1.95 billion in government revenue and about $8.15 billion in private sector revenue are lost annually due to corruption at the nation’s ports.
However, these losses severely constrict government programmes and the capacity to develop and improve much-needed public infrastructure.
Meanwhile, illegal charges, rent-seeking and corrupt port officials and circumstances of excessive delay to import and export processes are some of the few factors breeding corruption at the Port. The factors were also some of the administrative bottlenecks responsible for such huge losses at the nation’s Port, according to stakeholders.
Bribes and kickbacks reportedly continued to influence cargo clearance processes, vessel assignments, and sundry other vices.
To curb the corruption, in 2021, Federal Government set up an organisation known as the Ports Standing Task Team (PSTT), which comprises the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) , Independent Corrupt Practices and related offences Commission (ICPC) and other government agencies to suppress corruption and reduce cost of doing business in Nigerian ports.
But stakeholders who spoke with Daily Sun said that the impact of the organisation is not felt especially in the area of tackling corruption in the port. They said corruption is still very vibrant especially among government agencies operating at the port.
The said that corruption is contributing to the nation’s inflation because importers are adding up additional charges to the goods imported due to illegal charges they paid at the port.
Coordinator of the Ports Standing Task Team (PSTT) Moses Fadipe confirmed it in one of his press conference that corruption in the port contributes to inflation in the economy because importers build in the additional money spent in the ports into the price to be paid by the final consumer.
However, Daily Sun gathered that corruption at the ports can operate as a major deterrent to sustainable returns on foreign direct investment even as stakeholders complained that bribery and corruption are adding to the cost of operations at the ports, which invariably affected the purchasing power of ordinary man in the street.
Speaking with Daily Sun, the Advisory Head/CEO, Kamany Marine Services Limited, Charles Okorefe, said minimising the issue of corruption at the port is like eye office the niddle, the Carmel rather going through the niddle because it is entrenched, saying corruption is not undoable but it is very deep. “Corruption at the port is very deep at all levels. It is deep! From the shipping companies to the terminal operators that slam demurrages and rent at will without any challenge. From the Customs that extorts money from the importers through their agents and even importers themselves who underclear the value of their cargoes so that they can pay less duty.
“Then, Customs licensed agents who inflate cost to their importers. So corruption is endemic to all other units. Is it Standard Organisation of Nigeria? It is Police at the Port? Is it Port security themself? So when all these are added up to the cost of goods that are imported, like you said importers will not want to lose money they will increase the price of the product and all of that lead to inflation,” he added.
He said the issue of curbing corruption at the Port has to do with the issue of reevaluation of the system and also of mindset of all these agencies and the people mentioned earlier.
He advised: “They have to be reorientation. People have to ask themselves critical questions. The government agencies, what do you to so them to allow them to shun corruption? It is increasing their pay? If you increase their pay, will that make them to turn a new leaf? So they seems to be more questions than answers.
“But like I said, with reorientation and change of mindset with the provision of measurable facility for smooth cargo clearance process because delay is another issue where you hear Customs servers are down and sometimes shipping companies even terminal operators. So these are areas that need to be look into. It is a whole lot but I believe it can be done,” he explained.
On PSST tackling corruption at the port, he said, “their impacts are not felt anywhere that is much I can tell you for free. Their impacts are not felt because all the anormalies that have been going on even before they were inaugurated they are still there. That committee does not even seems to exit as far I’m as concerned. Maybe is just a way of providing a job for the buys. Otherwise, I have not seen the way they have performed.”
Meanwhile, a Maritime Security Specialist and Secretary General of the Merchant Seafarers Association of Nigeria, Captain Alfred Oniye, said if truth should be told, maritime is the home of corruption in Nigeria.
“If we are talking about corruption in Nigeria and you mention maritime, don’t you know that maritime is the home of corruption in Nigeria? That is where the country is bleeding now. And funny, these people have done everything possible to divert people’s attention away from the maritime. With what we are losing in the maritime because of corruption, it is enough for this country to be broke.
“We are not supposed to be borrowing money. We lose money every day and this money goes to individual pockets in this maritime industry. You want me to start mentioning companies, mentioning agencies? I am a well-trained private detective and I can categorically tell you what is happening in that water. I am presently the African regional head for the British private investigation. I can boldly tell you what is happening in that maritime industry.
“This country is bleeding; the real bleeding is on the maritime. And this is what maritime has done to this country. And somebody says there is no corruption in the maritime, mention that person’s name and I will give you 72 hours. Within 72 hours, I will tell you everything about that person. Anybody who comes out and says there is no corruption in the maritime is an enemy of this country. So, to ask you, what is he hiding? What is that person hiding?” he said.
On the PSST activities, he said: “Well, give a big kudos to Mr. Fadipe, the director of this port-standing task team. They’ve done their best. And I must say that despite their best, they still have limitations. Because the power that be, will not allow them to do more of what they have done.
“To their own understanding, to their own level, they have mitigated some things when it comes to port operations, when it comes to officials coming on board and collecting bribes, officials coming on board and not following the port procedure. So all those things, I think they’ve been able to reduce it to some extent. So those ones are just little to corruption. And I’m talking about the real corruption in this country,” he explained.
According to him, If anybody comes out and say there is no corruption in the maritime sector again, ask that person, what is he hiding?
Because you can even know from the kind of car that the person drives. Ask him how much the person’s salary is and compare to the car he drives and compare to the house he lives,” he said.
Also the National Coordinator of the Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders, Importers and Exporters Coalition (SNFFIEC); Chief Osita Chukwu, said there is no sign that corruption has abated in the port.
“The PSTT has not done anything, tell them that I say it is a lie. They have not reduced anything, quote me. We are still where we were. The only thing that can stop this is corruption in every nation is electronic transactions. When you put electronic devices, electronic template, then we use the electronic devices”, he said.