LAGOS: The Ports and Harbour bill will accommodate and spell out who should be the regulator and, the ports and harbour bill is yet to be passed by the National Assembly.
So anybody acting in the capacity of regulator is there illegally. Unfortunately, they are claiming to be regulators, but they are not in the real sense of it, because there is no enabling law that has supported the appointment of any government agency or organisation to act as a regulator.
A regulator does not emerge by word of mouth. Even the people that say they are regulators are there illegally and I am saying it loud and clear. As far as we are concerned, the law of the land does not recognise them, and we port operators do not recognise shippers’ council as a regulator and that is where we stand and that’s why we were in court.
Are you saying the presidential proclamation and the process of gazetting it to give legal backing is illegal? It is illegal because Mr. president was misguided. I did not blame Mr. President because he is the man who carries so much load on his desk. All he had was just a piece of paper, there was nothing in writing.
Somebody wrote a memo to Mr. President and he said approved, it is illegal, Mr. president was misguided by this whole thing and I know, I do not blame him because he is a very busy person.
Maybe if we had the ear of Mr. president and we let him know that this decision was taken in error, he probably would have understood that he is contradicting the law that set up the port itself, the port Act.
There has to be the Port and Harbour bill that will spell out who exactly should act in the capacity of a regulator. But shippers’ council has been playing the role of regulator for many years, why not now? One of the reason Why I was against them initially is that it is a one sided organization.
Shippers should by their primary concern, their duty is to protect the interest of shippers of goods to Nigeria. How can such an organisation be also asked to come and regulate the port operators who they are actually always fighting? There is no way it can be balanced because it has a primary role of protecting the interest of shippers, I am not surprised by their disposition to us.
I had always known that this situation would arise., he does not have our support. How will you want the port to be regulated and who should carry out the regulation? NPA also has the same position at the port, NPA is the landlord and has been acting in the capacity of regulator, it is very clear.
Until the harbour bill is passed, NPA’s role and part of its duty is to regulate the port operators and they have been doing that effectively. It is these so-called illegal regulators that are causing problems in the sector, going to freight forwarders to incite them against us.
Do they know the implication of inciting freight forwarders against port operators? You are sending the wrong message to the international community because what they will simply say is that the port sector in Nigeria is not safe to do business, which would be counter productive the regulation they are trying to enforce.
The port industry is today very stable, we’ve added a lot of value, we’ve always done what needs to be done, and we’ve never done anything illegal, we’ve never collected illegal fee.
If there was a problem I will expect somebody will come and talk to us, not publish on the pages of newspapers and order us to go back to 2009 tariff. That is six years down the line? Where is it done anywhere in the world? The cost of running the port is not the same.
Labour, welfare, wages are not the same, we’ve been negotiating with labour on a biannual basis, so cost of doing business is not the same. Even cost of equipment. The essence of Port reform is to bring down cost of doing business, that is not the case here, why? Anybody saying cost of doing business has not reduced is not saying the obvious fact.
All you need to do is find out how much it costs to do business in other developed parts of the world. I am not talking about Republic of Benin. Don’t forget, Republic of Benin has no revenue sources, the only source they have is the port sector.
In fact, when Nigerian ports were concessioned it was a big blow to them, a big loss, I have always referred to it. Nigeria has increased tremendously from what it used to be. Dwell time of ship has reduced drastically, that shows the efficient nature of the port. I have always said that time is also of essence in this business.
When you bring in your ship, we can discharge your vessel very quickly. Dwell time for vessel has reduced from ten days to three days, that in essence is a reduction in cost. To us that is efficiency and that is reduction in cost.
Everyone is talking about rent imposed on containers and other types of cargo, I could give you a table, that shows that the cost in Nigeria is very cheap in terms of cargo rent in the port. There are a lot of things that also contribute to increase in cost; you are looking at the terminal operators, you need to look at other port users who are operating in the port system, I mean who looks at what the even freight forwarders are charging, we know it.
Nobody has regulated other people that are operating or doing business within the port system and making money, you look at the port operators alone, that is not enough. We are the one doing the real, core job, we are the one that incur expenses. Has government revenue been enhanced as a result of port concession? Government has realized that a buoyant alternative source of income for Nigeria is the maritime sector, because government knows that through the Nigerian Customs Service, and by extension, the ports.
It is when we bring the cargo that customs service will charge their duty, if we don’t do as much, it will reflect on the Nigerian customs service.
I don’t know of any other sector that has so many work force, from freight forwarders to shipping companies to Terminal operators, we’ engaged millions of people, this is a system that works no matter what they say. We know why they are against us and I don’t want to say it.
If the ports are so efficient, why are Nigerian bound cargoes still being diverted I have the figure of rice being imported in Nigeria through smuggling.
