Tony Anakebe, managing director of Gold-Link Investment Ltd in this interview with AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE assessed Nigeria’s port business in 2018. He also highlighted the challenges confronting seamless port operations in the year under review. Excerpts.
Ports in 2018
The Federal Government made lots of revenue from the ports, judging by the N1.1 trillion generated by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in 2018. These are monies paid as charges and tariff by Nigerian importers. The importers were the greatest losers because in 2018 imported goods took not less than one to two months to be cleared.
The importer pays duty to the government, demurrage and storage charges to shipping companies and terminal operators, which Nigerians pay back because the importer adds the expended cost into the market prices of the commodities.
Nigerian importers are operating under harsh conditions, given the decay of the access road to the port. The situation has worsen, as importers now spend over N1 million to load a 40-foot container from Lagos to Abuja. How much are the goods inside the container worth?
After spending a long time to clear the container, it also takes over three weeks to return the empty container to the port. We say kudos to Customs for the revenue generated, even though the situation is impoverishing Nigerians. For instance, if you can afford to bring in one container today, after clearing and selling, the person would not be able to bring in half a container again. This is affecting essential commodities like medical equipment and pharmaceutical products and they are already scarce in the market.
Challenges faced by importers
In 2018, a lot of car dealers could not import vehicles because of high tariff placed on every vehicle that comes into the country. There was relative scarcity of foreign exchange. Importers could not have access to foreign exchange because some goods were placed under the 41 items prohibited from accessing forex from the official window, while those allowed access, still find it difficult to have access to the amount required.
The situation of port access roads is making things difficult for Nigerians and that is why 24 hours port operation cannot work. There is no way importers will be moving their cargoes at night in darkness. The port environment is also very dirty.
During festivity, there was congestion in the port terminals and some bonded terminals that were empty in the third quarter of 2018, started receiving goods in the fourth quarter.
Congestion built because the goods were not being cleared as they should. Customs operations have changed and we learnt that officers are now summoned to Abuja on regular basis to answer queries on why they released some certain goods.
When importers book for examination, it takes two to three days before the container would be dropped for examination, and all these were part of the delay that we encountered in the port.
Cargo dwell time
Cargoes now dwell between one and two months in the ports and the importers pay the prize in demurrage and storage charges. This notwithstanding, it takes about three weeks to successfully return the empty container because truckers go as far as Cele Bus Stop to join the queue.
Customs officers come to work around 11am and close by 3pm and terminal operators give as much as two to three days to drop containers for examination. After payment, the releasing officer may ask the cargo owner to wait for days for the DC to carry out analysis of the examination to avoid harassment from Abuja.
Before the agent will go through the processes and also give the truck the ‘delivery paper’, it will take another three to five days for the truck to enter the port.
Cost of haulage
In terms of haulage cost, we still hope that the completion of Apapa-Wharf road, as well as the opening of the Leventis Bridge will help to reduce the cost in 2019. Now, within Lagos importers pay between N700,000 and N750,000 for a 40-foot container, while outside Lagos, such as in the East or North, it cost between N1.1 to N1.2 million, depending on the weight of the cargo.
Observations
The Customs brokers and freight forwarding associations should wakeup because their performance in 2018 was not encouraging. They need to unite, put personal interest aside and fight for the right of the agents and the importers.
