By Steve Agbota, [email protected] 08033302331
Nigeria’s maritime industry is obviously struggling to find its feet even as ‘Africa’s giant’ celebrates 61 years of independence on October 1 2021.
With a coastline of 852 kilometres bordering the Atlantic Ocean in the Gulf of Guinea and a maritime area of over 46,000 sqkm, Nigeria has both fresh and mangrove swamps, creeks, coastal rivers, estuaries, bays, and offshore waters. More so, eight out of the 36 states of the country, with 25 per cent of Nigeria’s total population sharing the Atlantic Ocean coastline.
As a country is blessed with abundant resources in its oceans and seas to back its economic diversification and development drive, explaining why some experts have argued that Nigeria has no reasonbeing a fringe player in the global maritime space.
Regrettably despite its enormous potential, the nation’s maritime industry has been held back by corruption, policy inconsistencies and decaying infrastructure 61 years after independence
However, some stakeholders in the maritime sector have expressed displeasure over the sector’s state of affairs with its stunted growth over the years.
Stakeholders have lamented that despite its huge potential, the sector is still bedeviled by many challenges, that prevented Nigeria from becoming a key player in the global shipping business with little action on the part of government. Although the sector has recorded some achievements over these years, these still fall below expectations, given its population size, economic potential. Among the factors militating against its growth include corruption, greed and policy summersault by successive governments.
Meanwhile, other maritime nations, with Nigeria’s background, have since risen to become giants in all aspects of maritime business.
For instance, countries like Malaysia, Brazil, and South Korea, have today grown to become shipbuilding nations while African nations such as Egypt, South Africa, and Morocco are also doing far better, as Nigeria’s shipping industry struggles to find its feet.
Daily Sun learnt that Nigeria’s seaports handle more than 85 per cent of import trade value at over $15 billion annually, its maritime industry is still tottering at 61, even as it does not own a national carrier to engage in seaborne trades to date after the collapse of defunct the Nigerian National Shipping line (NNSL).
Speaking with Daily Sun, the National President of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero, said Nigeria is losing so much to the neigbouring countries in the maritime industry as it grapples with gridlock for more than 15 years now.
“We have lost transit to Ghana; we are losing transshipment to Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin and Cameroun. Our ports are becoming too expensive and doesn’t have what it takes to sustain a modern port operation, which is called preferred port.
“Nigerian port is bedeviled with a lot of encumbrances and pains, going to the port are difficult, which takes someone a whole day sometimes. People will be stuck in traffic while some people lost their lives.
“No government encouragement from NIMASA, Shippers Council and Nigeria Customs Service, everybody are just there to make money, collect revenue and leave the infrastructure to decay and leaves the port in the sorry state. The pains are so much and the gains are nothing to write home about. There has been gridlock for so many years, which associated exploitation from people who are making money from it,” he said.
He said people don’t see any gains in the industry, adding that Nigerian ports don’t have scanners since 2006 when a contract was awarded to pre-shipment inspection agents to bring in scanners, which they started and by 2013, they terminated it.
“Since 2013 to date, we don’t have scanners in the port. So, we have a laborious and difficult system in the port industry and this is a country that depends solely on import even as the export drive is not there. Yes, we know we are exporting our oil.
“The oil export is not encouraging. So many things have not been done. People are not place in proper position. So there is a lot of thing that is terribly done that is affecting the whole industry,” he said.
He said the present government should sit back and put things right because there is no gain in the maritime sector, saying that neigbouring countries are taking over Nigerian maritime space by their diligence and the way they do things while Nigeria is losing out completely.
Also commenting, President of Shippers’ Association Lagos State (SALS), Jonathan Nicol, said the problems facing the industry for years are still there despite the government intervention at various times.
“For instance, the Minister of Transportation is one with honesty that does not pretend. He said because of the problems in the maritime sector, which cannot be solved, he decided to concentrate on railways re-opening. Railways is part of the transport logistic chain. Yes, the Minister of Transport is right. Problems that refused to be solved, what are the major problems? Corruption and nothing more,” he lamented.
According to him, the shipping lines and terminal operators are at a distance with their customers, which has never happened before in the maritime sector.
“Shipping lines and terminal operators are the primary partners of shippers, importers and exporters. Today, it is like a war conducting business in the nation’s ports. The export seat at Onne Port is always closed on Saturdays and they do not attend to the public and this is creating a huge problem for exporters,” he said.
At 61, he said the Naira has depreciated by an alarming proportion and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has become helpless. And all these are challenges confronting the maritime sector including insecurity across Nigeria.
He lamented that traders are no longer safe on the highways due to insecurity in parts of the country. Nicol said that investors are leaving Nigeria in droves as many industries cannot survive the harsh economic stress in managing cost of production anymore.
He said the regulators of the nation’s aritime sector including the Nigeria Customs Service are neck deep in revenue generation rather than trade facilitation.
“If the volume of money you declare determines your quality, then we are in trouble. The Nigeria Customs Service is fast becoming a full blown military force, having different names for its operations such as strike force armed with sophisticated weapons to intimidate the civilian traders,” he bemoaned.
However, he said there are maritime technocrats in the industry that should be invited to assist the Minister of Transportation and other maritime agencies whose management are not experienced enough to handle highly technical issues in the maritime sector. He emphasised that the sector needs a major overhaul, saying that some Government agencies in the industry are over staffed.