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Nigeria approves N180m to fight corruption in seaports

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The Federal Ministry of Transportation says N180 million has been approved for Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) to fight corruption and prevent other maritime crimes across the nation’s seaports.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, said his at the 3rd roundtable on Maritime Sector Reforms: “Consolidating the Gains,” held in Lagos on Wednesday.

The roundtable was organised by the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) and Convention on Business Integrity (CBI).

Ajani was represented by Babatunde Sule, who noted that the Federal Government instructed Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to provide funds and operational vehicles for the PSTT.

Ajani added that the government agencies were instructed to provide N60 million each for the Port Standing Task Team to carry on the anti-corruption crusade across the nation’s ports.

“Port administration policy is such that port users are able to demand, track, and ensure greater compliance with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) by government agencies.

“And so, incidences of corrupt demands as it relates to vessel clearance has reduced.

`Government capacity to establish policy on compliance systems and collaborate with the private sector and civil society to improve trade flows and the ease of doing business are being strengthened,” she said.

She said that the ministry, through the NSC, the Technical Unit on Government and Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR), and other agencies, Nigeria was poised to augment its standing by further institutionalising and continuously sustaining its reforms.

The National Coordinator of PSTT, Mr Moses Fadipe, confirmed the approval for the operations of the task team, adding that only NSC, being the leading agency, had responded to the government’s instruction.

He revealed that other agencies, which included NIMASA and NPA, were yet to respond and the PSTT had not received anything from them.

Fadipe noted that the Nigerian maritime sector had made significant progress towards promoting efficiency and transparency in recent years.

“The PSTT has played a significant role in transforming the sector through its commendable monitoring and enforcement of adherence to the provisions of the Nigerian Ports Process Manual and in its discharge of other ancillary mandates.

“The task team’s interventions have led to a reduction in inefficiencies and corruption, and there has been a positive impact on the economy.

“Strict monitoring and enforcement of joint boarding of vessels procedure, transparency in monitoring, strict monitoring of joint cargo examinations, and the dismantling of illegal checkpoints and extortion points have all contributed to the improvement of the sector,” he said.

Nigeria-seaport

Seaport terminal operators list challenges, proffer solutions

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The Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) says dilapidated access roads, poor traffic management and manual examination of cargo by the customs service remain some of the major challenges facing port operations in the country.

Dr Bolaji Akinola, STOAN spokesman, listed the challenges in a statement issued in Lagos on Monday.

Akinola said that the challenges existed even though operations inside the port terminals across the country were well-organised and professionally coordinated by the concessionaires.

He said that terminal operators, like other business entities in Apapa, were victims of the “dysfunctional state and chaos” on the port access roads.

“Terminal operators do not have any role to play or responsibility to bear on the road. We don’t own the road; we don’t control the roads; and we don’t control happenings on the road.

“We cannot control the security agencies saddled with the responsibility of managing traffic on the road,” Akinola said.

He said that the terminal operators, more than any other entity in the logistics chain, bore the brunt of the Apapa traffic congestion, as it hampered the evacuation of cargo from the port.

“The business of terminal operators is to keep trade moving. We don’t make money from cargo sitting at the terminal.

”Our profitability is in the volume of cargo we handle, so it is in our best interest for cargo to leave the port as soon as possible.

“It should be noted that the problem with the roads leading into and out of Apapa is caused by bad roads, numerous check points mounted by security agencies and rickety trucks.

If these three issues are addressed and adequate parking lots provided for trucks, the gridlock will become history.

Akinola said the fact that the roads were cleared and rid of the notorious traffic anytime President Muhammadu Buhari visited Lagos “showed that security operatives know what to do to deliver us all from the pains we suffer daily from the gridlock.”

“In 2019, when the President visited Lagos, the otherwise intractable Apapa gridlock disappeared. The gridlock also disappeared on June 10, 2021 when he visited to commission the rail line and the Deep Blue project.

“It is not terminal operators that cleared the road; it was the same security operatives that manned the road that cleared it.”

He wondered why the security operatives would not continue to clear the road on a daily basis since they were able to do it during the President’s visit.

Akinola said that the trucks that had direct business at the port were less than half the number of trucks seen on the road.

He said that the other half consisted of petroleum tankers heading to petroleum jetties/tank farms as well as trucks owned by some Apapa-based manufacturing concerns.

“A few days ago, the Acting Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). Mr Mohammed Bello-Koko, said NPA counted about 30 checkpoints mounted by security and traffic management officials on the roads in Apapa.

”It has nothing to do with terminal operators. We cannot control the action of these government officials. Only government can call them to order,” he said.

Akinola said private terminal operators at the seaports invested N538 billion in port development from 2006 when the ports were concessioned to December 2017.

He said the ports had become much more efficient than they were before the 2006 concession, but regretted that those who thrived in chaos wanted to cast aspersion on the concession exercise since orderliness does not benefit their pockets.

“Port concession has endured and it is the most successful privatization exercise of the Nigerian government.

“Port terminal operators have done very well. If not for the terminal operators, our ports would have since gone into a meltdown. We were all witnesses to the inefficiency and chaos in the port before concession.

Akinola said that the Federal Government’s revenue from the ports had more than tripled in the 15 years post-port concession.

”Port workers’ welfare has been enhanced significantly and they are now among the best paid workers in the country.

“We have since addressed the chaos inside the port but those who profit at the expense of Nigerians have moved the chaos to the roads. Unfortunately, we have no control over the roads,” he said.