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By Steve Agbota, [email protected]
The Nigeria’s maritime industry recorded so much turbulence in 2023, a year industry stakeholders considered one of the toughest in recent decades. Unstable exchange rate hampered business activities especially in the clearing of cargo at the nation’s ports.
The operating space was harsh worsened by multiple taxation, scarcity of forex, drop in importation, traffic gridlock, port congestion and high cost of doing business among others, all of which impacted stakeholders in more ways than one.
Many businesses collapsed in the course of the year, just as importers, exporters as and indigenous ship owners wailed as foreigner dominated the market.
This was even as the Federal Government again failed to disburse the much-awaited $700 million Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) to enable Nigerian ship owners participate in the nation’s coastal waters even when the former President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the disbursement.
Sardonically, the Nigerian ports were tagged the most expensive in the world, due to poor coordination, poor policy implementation, multiple charges against which the ports have continued to lose importers and cargoes to neighbouring countries.
During the year also, the ports still continued to contend with obsolete infrastructure like roads, rail system, collapse of quay apron, congestion and high level of extortion on the port access roads. It is also disheartening that reduction of cost has not been achieved.
But as the year 2024 settles in, stakeholders, especially ship owners and Customs brokers/freight forwarders want Nigeria to be among top 10 maritime nations in the world in 2024. This is even as they called for review of port concession agreement, exchange rate stability for clearing of cargo, implementation of national single window regime, favourable trade policies among other things that will bring development to the industry.
Stakeholders have demanded that Federal Government fixes the roads within the port areas; develop workable policies that will bring about development such as guaranteed security architecture and infrastructure facelift to aid the maritime sector for the next 12 months and beyond.
Speaking with Daily Sun, the former President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farinto, said: “My expectation from the maritime industry is very high. The first thing I want government to do is to set out mitigant that will cushion effects of these various policies that are too harsh.
“We have a situation the exchange rate is changing as if is a time bomb. Government should set up an exchange rate for clearance of cargo alone. Let us have an exchange rate for six months. Wether dollar goes up or does down, this should be for clearance of cargo for Customs purposes alone,” he said.
He said that there is need for government to set up mitigant to cushion the effects of dollar going up or going down or the increase in fuel prices so that the importers that are bringing in the cargo will be encouraged and it will serves as palliative to the importers.
“It is not necessary you give people cash directly but when you formulate policies that will cushion effects and ameliorate the various effects of the suffering of your policy, people will know that this is a listening government,” he added.
However, he said the port concession agreement between the Federal Government and terminal operators must be reviewed and reviewed while carrying various stakeholders along.
“Carrying the various stakeholders along by jettisoning dollarisation payment. That is the only way we can now hold various terminal operators responsible. Not when you want them to pay in dollars and you don’t want them to increase their charges. These are two parallel lines. Government must be seeing doing the right thing,” he said.
According to him, there is need to also look at the reports submitted by one committee inaugurated by Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the industry.
“There is need to look at various ways of double taxation. The first thing I want to talk about is VAT. How we calculate our VAT is very wrong and it is a double taxation. We are subjecting tax to taxes. The anaconda payment of 7 per cent of port levy or port development levy should be abrogated because is no more relevant to what is happening in the industry.
“There are others small charges that they are slamming on the industry. For instance, before you clear your vehicle, you go through their portal and pay a lot of money. The minimum is N6000. Customs should be able to give us data in the next one year. If we remove all these small payments, it will go a long way,” he explained.
He urged Government to review the auto policy to 15 years, saying that only few Nigerians that can afford the 12 years vehicles that are allowed to come in.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer(CEO)of Widescope International Nigeria Limited, Dr Olusegun Musa, said Government policy on exportation and importation and fiscal policy must be reviewed.
According to him, stakeholders want to see a consistent policy in the fiscal policy to give stakeholders in the industry direction in the import and export regime.
“We also want the Comptroller General of Customs to engage stakeholders. We want him to engage us to have a serious discussion on how to improve the system. The CG needs to o create time because we have a lot to discuss,” he said.
Musa who is also a Former Chairman, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF),Murtala Muhammed Airport Chapter, said there is need to automate the clearance process both in the Customs, the shipping companies and the terminal operators.
“The system must be automated.We don’t want to have interface with the Customs again. Let everything be done online and let everybody be a professional. We cannot continue with this practice that does not add value to us.
“We cannot allow those who have connections with the agency hierarchy to continue to get rich while the professionals are getting poor. These are the things we need to work on in this new year,” he added.
However, one of the ship owners who spoke on the condition of anonymity urged President Bola Tinubu to facilitate the disbursement of CVFF to indigenous ship owners.
He said the disbursement becomes necessary because it will enable Nigerian ship owners to participate fully in the nation’s coastal waters.
“Is it not funny that at this age in our country, we still depends on international shipping lines to lift its crude oil. This cost us nothing less than $10 billion yearly as a nation. This happens because we don’t have vessels that carry Nigerian flag on the coastal waters. We don’t have indigenous shipping lines. That is why we are saying they should the disburse the money to the qualified indigenous ship ;1owners,” he said.
