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By Steve Agbota [email protected] 08033302331
Federal Government’s failure to invest in state of the art maritime infrastructure in the nation’s seaports may have robbed it of the opportunity of retaining West Africa’s shipping hub, with some of its neigbhours capitalising on such flaws to draw patronage away from Nigeria.
Creating a maritime hub at any given time translates to level of investment in infrastructure to make these ports competitive and dominant in maritime trade.
But in Nigeria, reverse is the case as most of the infrastructures across the nation’s ports are over 40 years old. This has made operations in port so laborious and burdensome for various port users and it usually result to congestion.
Asides poor port infrastructure, the high cost of doing business, inefficient processes and procedures, and a litany of extortions at Nigeria’s seaports have made the nation’s gateway uncompetitive despite Federal Government’s mantra of ‘promoting ease of doing business.
Ideally, Nigeria ports are supposed to be the transshipment hub for West and Central Africa due to its big market and size of the population, but lack of adequate infrastructure has caused the nation this status to neigbouring ports such as Togo, Benin Republic, Cameroun and Ghana.
These countries claim transshipment hub status from Nigeria because they have developed modern ports with infrastructure such as deeper draught that can accommodate larger vessels and these ports have been automated.
While these countries can take a vessel with 16 meters draught, none of Nigerian seaports can accommodate such vessel due to the nation’s shallow draught that is not more than 13 meters.
Conversely, this made it difficult for transshipment in Nigerian Port or accommodation of POST PANAMAX vessels with a capacity of about 8000 TEU and 47.5 feet draft.
Unfortunately, the final destination of the contents (cargoes) of the bigger vessels that call at neighbouring countries is Nigeria because of the large population and size of Nigerian markets.
For instance, while Nigerian ports draught was between eight and 13 meters, which cannot accommodate mega ships, the least draught in other neighbouring ports is 16 meters.
For a check, the draught of the neighbouring ports of Togo is 15.5 meters while Benin Republic has 15 meters, Ghana 19 meters while Cameroun has 16 meters draught level.
With this larger draught, most Nigeria bound goods by mega ships were transshipped from these countries with smaller vessels.
Aside maintaining a deeper draught of 15 meters, more Nigerian-bound transshipment cargoes will inevitably be diverted to the port of Cotonou following the outsourcing of the management of the port of Cotonou to the Port of Antwerp International, Belgium.
The agreement between PAI, a consultancy and investment subsidiary of Antwerp Port Authority, and the authorities was reached in 2018.
With this agreement, more than 60 per cent Nigeria-bound transshipment cargoes are reportedly diverted to Cotonou Port largely due to low port draught of Nigerian ports which has made Nigerian port inaccessible for bigger vessels
Explaining the deal, the Antwerp Port Authority’s main task was modernising the port in organisational terms, renovate the obsolescent facilities and prepare for and guide the expansion of the port.
Cotonou port, built in 1965, was initially designed to handle two million tonnes of cargo per annum, but had increased to 12 million tonnes due to Nigeria-bound transhipment cargoes.
Importers have also argued that sanity at the Cotonou port and the Benin government constant offering of rebates to Nigerian importers boom their transshipment status and patronage.
In July 2017, the Cotonou port reduced its charges by 27 per cent for transit cargoes coming to Nigeria. For instance, it was learnt that to clear a transit car discharged at the Cotonou port to Nigeria attracts only CFA290, 000 (N186,000) instead of CFA399,920 (N257,000) with effect from July 1, 2017.
Speaking on the development, the Vice President, Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Kayode Farinto, said it is a shame that the nation’s second largest revenue earner, after oil was left to wallop in such a sorry state with dilapidated infrastructure.
According to him, there are too many factors that are drawing the sector backward, ranging from bad access roads to the ports, to high shipping costs, shallow water draft at seaports.
“There are too many issues responsible for the setback. The government does not have either the political will or she is not serious about implementing those good policies. You should expect that before the end of this year we are going to have more than 40 per cent drop in cargo coming to Nigerian ports.
“The neighbouring countries, such as Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo are rapidly developing their seaports, he said Nigeria is currently losing grip of the shipping economy due to abandonment of the sector, which is the second revenue earner for the government after oil,” he said.
Meanwhile, the National President, National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero, said the neighbouring ports have already positioned their ports as millennium ports, preferred, transshipment or load center, adding that most West African ports built their ports to accommodate Nigerian bound cargo knowing about the country’s poor infrastructure.
He identified the neighbouring ports, which have either completed their deep-sea projects or near completion at Cotonou, Benin Republic, Lome, Togo, Accra, Ghana and Cameroun.
He called on the Federal Government to wake up by designing the concept of a deep sea/ transshipment center to accommodate large e-class vessels/mega ships of 8000 – 20000 TEUs that are currently demanded regionally and globally, which is the only solution to the diversion of goods to neighbouring ports.
He advised that with international best practices, Nigeria must design the following: National Guarantee system to cover the payment of import duty taxes at the time of transit; Custom Seal that ensure the physical integrity of the goods while in transit, making sure that the goods start and exit the transit in its original state; implement electronic tracking system enabling Customs to track and locate transit vehicles and guide intervention force including Customs staff; a document system to enable transit document issued at the start of transit journey to be accepted by transport and Custom authority along transit
However, he identified inefficient port system as the reason why the country lost the transshipment hub status to other West African countries. He said except there is a change in infrastructure rehabilitation, Nigeria will continue to lose cargoes to neighbouring countries, which have deep seaports and better facilities.
