While Nigeria continues to foot-drag in automating cargo clearing procedure at the ports through the adoption of single window clearing platform and use of scanners for cargo inspection, its West African neighbours Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana have reduced the number of days it takes importers to get the authorisations needed for clearing containers out from the port.
Nigeria’s failure to automate cargo clearing procedure means that cargo dwells longer at the ports. Currently, it takes a minimum of 22 days to clear a consignment and take delivery of cargo from the port to the importers’ warehouses.
Longer cargo dwell time, invariably, translates into higher costs for importers, including manufacturers, using Nigerian ports who cannot take delivery of their consignments as and when due and so have to pay demurrage to shipping companies and storage charges to terminal owners.
Instructively, the significant improvement in service delivery at Cotonou Port in Benin, Tema Port in Ghana and Lome Port in Togo has been aided by the introduction of technology-driven cargo clearing procedure such as single window.
Single window is a platform that brings all facilities and parties involved in cargo clearing together in one place, with the aim of reducing the time and efforts involved in getting approvals from different layers at the ports.
Hameed Ali, comptroller general of Customs, had in 2017 promised that the electronic single window would be introduced in port operations before the end of 2017 and that there were plans to replace the scanners at the port to improve ease of doing business at ports. Over 24 months down the line, port users are yet to see these promises come to fruition.
“Before the introduction of single window in Benin Republic, cargo dwell time was more than 18 days but since the port embraced single window, cargo dwell time crashed to less than seven days and revenue for government also jumped up by 33 percent,” said Cajetan Agu, director, consumer affair, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC).
Agu said cargo dwell time in Togo’s Lome Port also dropped from over 22 days to three days after the introduction of the single window technology.
BusinessDay findings show a similar trend in Ghana’s Port of Tema, where cargo dwell time came down from 24 days to 15 days due to the introduction of technology that improved service efficiency at the port.
“Technology eliminates human to human contact and gives the right service once the importer does the right thing. These are all Nigeria is losing as a country because it failed to adopt technology like neigbouring West African ports,” Agu said while speaking on the challenges of trading across borders at a recent workshop in Lagos.
Whereas the adoption of technology would have eased processes, importers and their agents are going through various kinds of challenges in the hands of the different taskforces instituted in the ports by government agencies, including Customs, while clearing their goods from the ports, said Tony Anakebe, managing director, Gold-Link Investment Ltd, a Lagos-based clearing and forwarding firm.
These taskforces, according to him, must grant approval before the importer would be allowed to move a container out from the port, thereby making documentation processes very clumsy and cumbersome for importers.
“The documentation of goods brought into Nigeria by my clients since early April has not been perfected, not to mention going to the port for inspection by agencies, which will take another two weeks,” Anakebe said.
“Nigerian ports need Customs that make use of single window and other electronic clearing system to facilitate trade. We also need an enabling legislation that would enthrone international best practices in Customs operations,” he added.
Speaking further, Agu said in line with the Federal Government’s drive to improve ease of doing business, there was the need to reduce the number of government agencies at the ports to one.
“A situation where one government agency carries out a check and another does same check is duplication of function that causes delay. Once a check is done by an appropriate authority, there is no need for a second check by another agency,” he added.
Industry experts are also worried by the amount of time spent at the ports and border posts within the West African region, saying it was part of the high cost of trade in the region.
Justin Bayili, executive secretary, Borderless Alliance, said recently in Lagos that a large chunk of the delays and cost arose from the existence of multiple Customs and police checkpoints along the routes from the ports to the border posts, physical state of the roads, and unlawful extortion.
“It is easier to import from China than to move manufactured cargo from Lagos to Benin or Ghanaian markets,” Bayili said.
There are 18 checkpoints from Seme Border to Agbara and 27 checkpoints in total from Seme to Mile 2, according to Agu, who said Nigeria needs to reduce the outrageous number to two in line with the specification of ECOWAS to facilitate regional trade.
“Time is money in transport and port businesses, and delays encountered at the border stations and ports translate to money that includes payment of demurrage and storage charges at the ports. The requirement of high number of document in cargo clearing is another problematic area,” Agu said.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
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