Infrastructural deficit, absence of scanners stall effective 24-hour port operations

The huge infrastructural deficit along with lack of functional scanning equipment at the nation’s seaports, has formed a major setback to effective implementation of 24-hour port operations contained in the Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business recently signed by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
Industry analysts say that this infrastructural gap, which can be seen in the deplorable access roads, faulty cargo scanners, none-existence of an efficient rail system for movement of cargo, absence of functional truck holding-bay and among other issues, has conspired to negatively impact on efficient service delivery at the ports.
“Most scanners at our ports are either completely broken down or are functioning below installed capacity. This has left the officers of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) with no option than to carry out 100 percent physical examination of cargoes. This impedes efficient service delivery that the Executive Order on the Ease of Doing Business was brought to address,” said Taiwo Afolabi, Group Executive Vice Chairman of SIFAX Group, in Lagos at the weekend.
Afolabi doubles as the chairman of the parent company of Ports and Cargo Handling Service Limited (PCHSL), a concessionaire in the Tin-Can Island Port. He said at the Annual Taiwo Afolabi Maritime Conference held in Lagos on recently, that the scanners were in a state that makes it difficult for Customs to discharge its duty of effective and timely container inspection and fast track cargo delivery to importers’ warehouse at minimal cost to the importer.
He suggested that the Federal Government needs to consider the option of concessioning the scanners to private sector operators to manage, judging by the fact that years back, when scanners were in the hands of private operators, they were fully operational, compared to today.
“The current economic reality in the country has made it impracticable for the government alone to shoulder the responsibility of infrastructure provision in critical sectors of the economy. Therefore, the scanners at the nation’s ports can be concessioned to be kept functional for 24-hour port operation to be effective,” he suggested.
When BusinessDay visited Tin-Can Island port, Yusuf Bashar, Customs Area Controller of the command, told our correspondent in an exclusive interview that Tin-Can Island Port has put modalities in place to enable officers of the command to be on ground to clear and release genuinely cleared consignment for importers and their agents on 24-hour basis.
The visit however showed that on-duty officers often work at night with rechargeable lanterns, due to lack of power supply resulting from the failure of the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to fully illuminate the ports and ensure constant supply of power for businesses to go on without hitch.
“The Federal Government needs to put structures on ground to ensure round-the-clock power supply at the ports, so that there would be 24-hour illumination at the port and its environment because Customs cannot board vessels at night nor conduct examination of cargo with lanterns at night,” said Tony Anakebe, managing director of Gold-Link Investment Limited.
Pointing at security concerns as another major hindrance to effective implementation of round-the-clock port operations, Anakebe said that there wasn’t any sign to show that ports in Lagos operate optimally at night, as agents were even afraid to come to the port at night because they feared for their safety, as well as that of goods exiting the ports.
“The 24-hour port operations policy is no doubt good but the implementation would not be feasible under the current conditions of port infrastructure,” he stated.
Continuing, he said “For 24-hour operations to be effective, government must improve on the security system within and around the port by ensuring that port access roads are well illuminated and that security cameras are installed to monitor movement of persons and cargoes in and out of the ports.
Lucky Amiwero, a maritime analyst, said in a telephone interview, that 24-hour port operation can only have impact on cargo clearance, “if all the government agencies at the port, including commercial banks that would collect import duties and clearing agents, were encouraged to work round-the-clock.
“The situation where banks operate from 8am to 4pm everyday would not allow the importers and their agents to pay import duty and obtain necessary clearance that would enable Customs to release the cargo. It was not enough to issue an executive order on paper, the Federal Government needs to put structures on ground to ensure round-the-clock power supply at the port; illuminate the port and its environment.”
He further noted that the access roads leading to the ports in Lagos were in a sorry state, while the scanners at the ports have not been functional for years, pointing to the fact that Nigerian ports are not ready for effective 24-hour operations.

 

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE