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Ports: Fresh moves to achieve 48-hour cargo clearance begin

By BusinessNews Staff on May 26, 2014

After several years of efforts by successive administrations to achieve 48-hour cargo clearance at the nation’s seaports without success, the federal government, through the Ports Economic Regulator, is making new moves to ensure that importers can clear their goods within two days after arriving the country, reports Francis Ugwoke

The last of the efforts of the federal government to achieve 48-hour cargo clearance target in the nation’s seaports, airports and border stations, is yet to be heard. This time, the task appears to have fallen on the desk of the parastatal of the Ministry of Transport, the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), which was recently appointed the Ports Economic Regulator. This appears to be so as the board and management staff of the Ports Regulator recently organised a one-day national discourse to find a lasting solution to the long delay in the ports before importers (shippers) and their freight forwarders take delivery of their cargoes from the ports.

It would be recalled that the task of trying to achieve 48-hour cargo clearance at the ports has taken the federal government close to two decades. The various efforts have been without success. The present administration, apparently determined to make a change, had constituted Presidential Committee directly supervised by the Ministry of Finance, with the involvement of the Transport Ministry. At one point or the order, the government only succeeded in clearing a particular backlog of cargoes that caused congestion, and the situation built again, rubbishing earlier efforts. That is what the situation is now.

Observers believe that the current move may not be unconnected with the worsening cargo delivery situation in which importers spend sometimes 2- 3 months before receiving their goods. The situation worsened since the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) introduced the issuance of Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) without which an importer cannot clear his goods. PAAR replaced the Risk Assessment Report (RAR) which was introduced by the former service providers who administered Destination Inspection regime. Importers and freight forwarders maintain that PAAR has been a nightmare for those who have goods to clear.

However, it must be pointed out that sometimes, it depends on the type of goods. Some freight forwarders and Customs officials say PAAR can be issued in a day if the documentation does not have problem. But others say it could take months. Some say it depends on the state of trade compliance procedure by the importers. But the truth of the matter is that many importers and their freight forwarders have been complaining of the problem in getting PAAR, saying that sometimes the document is issued when the cargo had arrived the ports weeks or months and had incurred heavy losses on demurrage paid to terminal operators and shipping companies. The problem itself is seen by terminal operators and shipping companies as a big blessing as they record so much revenue from demurrage paid by importers.

FG’s Position on 48 Hour Cargo Clearance
Transport Minister, Senator Idris Umar, who insinuated that achieving 48-hour cargo clearance cannot be a big deal told participants at the forum that studies had shown that the 24-hour time frame for clearance of cargo was achievable. According to Umar, this is being achieved in many ports worldwide, including some ports in emerging economies like ours. He said speedy clearance of cargo at the port impacts positively on a nation’s cost of doing business, global competitiveness and economic growth as it affects the cost and timeliness of delivery of goods and services”. Umar added that President Goodluck Jonathan in his understanding of the important role the maritime sector plays in the national economy was responsible for instituting several reforms in the maritime industry, especially pertaining to the ports, with a view to tapping the huge potentials of the industry for the socio-economic development of the country.
According to him, as part of the port reforms, the Federal Government has adopted and remains committed to the 48-hour clearance target with the objective of decongesting the ports, bringing down costs, attracting greater patronage and ultimately accelerating the facilitation of the nation’s international trade. Pointing out that complaints from port users about the inability of port operatives to actualise the policy has led to the assumption that the 48-hour target was become a mirage, he said that government however strongly believes that the 48-hour cargo clearance target is achievable in Nigerian ports. He said that it was the determination of the government to sanitise the operations in our ports, adding that this was what made the President to appoint the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) as an interim Economic Regulator of the nation’s ports.

The council, Umar said, had the mandate and full support of the President to do whatever was necessary to ensure that Nigerian ports become competitive, cost effective and attractive to port users. “This assignment will undoubtedly require the cooperation of all actors in the industry since we all have a stake in the successful execution of this onerous task by the council. The choice of the council as economic regulator of our ports is informed by its role as a trade facilitating agency with a mission to ensure seamless, efficient and cost effective shipment of goods to and from Nigeria in consonance with acceptable international standards”.

Chairman Governing Board of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Lt Gen Salihu Ibrahim (rtd), in his speech at the event said that for an emerging economy like that of Nigeria, 48-hour clearance time at the ports should be the minimum and not an aspiration. “We have had opportunity to visit some ports in Malaysia and other parts of the world and we see what obtains there. They are emerging economies like us and we were at par in the 1960s. Why then have we not been able to move forward and be at par with them in this 21st century?”, he queried. Challenging stakeholders for soul searching and reflection on how to achieve the target, Ibrahim pointed out that the port as important component of the international logistics chain and its performance to a very large extent determines the competitiveness of a nation on the international market. “ We all have a huge stake in whether our ports become efficient or not. That is why the Nigerian Shippers Council has put together this event so as to enable us rub minds and find solutions to the poor performance of our ports”.

The Executive Secretary of the Council, Mr Hassan Bello, in his speech at the event opined that there was the need for cooperation among all the stakeholders to ensure that the 48-hour cargo clearance target was realised.
Bello appealed to all the stakeholders to embrace synergy for the purpose of achieving efficiency in the services rendered at the ports, adding that increased efficiency in the ports would go a long way in promoting international trade and helping to develop and transform the nation’s economy.

Bello pointed out that the desire of government to sanitise the nation’s ports and develop them into hubs for the West and Central African sub-region could only be achieved when the ports become efficient and competitive.
“Many countries in the world have developed their ports to become money spinning sector of their economies, bringing huge revenues to their national efforts as a result of efficiency”, he said.

He said that the Federal Government appreciates the enormous potential of the ports to be catalysts for the socio-economic development of the nation, adding that this was responsible for the series of reforms embarked upon by President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure the transformation of the industry to bring it to global standards.
He said one of such major steps was the recent appointment of the Shippers Council as the Economic Regulator of Nigerian Ports.

Stakeholders were divided on the attainment of 48-hour cargo clearance in the near future. But they were of the view that there will be a headway once the infrastructure problem in the ports system is addressed and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) wakes up to its responsibility in the Destination Inspection ( DI) regime with reference to the bottlenecks being faced as a result of the issuance of Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR). Terminal operators were also identified as having a role to play in ensuring that their cargo handling equipment profile improves. Similarly, importers were asked to make genuine and honest declarations as the only way to ensure that their goods do not suffer delay when clearing.

On the other hand, freight forwarders were equally enjoined to be new technology compliant as wrong information fed into the system during clearing processes accounted for some delays in the issuance of PAAR and the time it takes the owner to take delivery.

[This Day]

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