By Steve Agbota [email protected]
Despite being the second largest revenue earner for Nigeria after oil, the Federal Government has again ignored the maritime sector in its 2023 Appropiation Bill.
With a total expenditure of N20.51 trillion proposed in the “2023 Budget of Fiscal Consolidation and Transition” presented to the joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, last week, power, roads, rail, agriculture, health and educational sectors were prioritised.
The lawmakers had benchmarked the budget on $73 per barrel in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which they also passed last week.
However, the nation’s maritime sector despite having capacity to put Nigerian economy into the global map and generate more revenue was not given a mention leaving importers still at the mercy of neighboring ports in Cotonou, Togo and Ghana amid other challenges confronting the sector.
This is even as the Senate approved the removal of Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs) from the 2023 national budget following the report of the MTEF/FSP.
The affected agencies of government not included in the appropriation bill include the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Commenting on the development concerned maritime stakeholders who have been advocating port reforms over the years said they are disappointed that the 2023 appropriation would have been the starting point of reforms to enable the sector recover lost grounds.
Today, the nation’s maritime industry provides services to all enterprises engrossed in the business of banking, information and technology, designing, constructing, manufacturing, oil and gas acquiring, operating, supplying, repairing and maintaining vessels, or component parts, managing and operating shipping lines, stevedoring and Customs brokerage services, shipyards, dry docks, marine, railways, marine repair shops, shipping and freight forwarding services and other similar enterprises.
The industry embraces all maritime related business activities, which take place within the country’s maritime environment.
Nigerian ports are a major gateway into the country with over 85 per cent of all the goods and services coming into the country exploiting facilities at the nation’s seaports with aggregate value exceeding the $15 billion mark annually, which can grow to $50 billion in the couple of year if adequately harnessed.
In spite of many opportunities embedded in the sector, since 1960, the Nigerian maritime sector has been neglected by both past and present governments.
Since then, the sector has also been beset with several developmental and management challenges. The nation’s maritime sector was still bedeviled with several other challenges including traffic gridlock, port congestion and high cost of doing business among others, all of which impacted both stakeholders in more ways.
For instance, the ports continued to contend with obsolete infrastructure, including roads, rail system, quay, buildings, equipment and yards and remained heavily coupled with congestion and high level of insecurity and pilferage. Even the much talked about 48-hour cargo clearance is a failed system.
Daily Sun learnt that most of the infrastructure in the nation’s ports are over 45 years old, which is one of the reasons the concerned stakeholders vent their anger over the exclusion of the maritime sector in the 2023 budget.
In a telephone interview with Daily Sun, the President of Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), Otunba Frank Ogunojemite said that the budget cannot fly because of so many things will be affected.
According to him, it is an understatement to say that maritime sector is the catalyst of any nation economy, saying that no government can rule out the industry from its national budget.
“But I’m very pretty sure that the budget will be amended. The amendment will include maritime industry otherwise, there will be issues. Look at the state of the nation’s maritime industry compare to other international standard.
“The budget will still be amended. There is no way the maritime industry will be excluded in the budget because maritime is the engine driver of all nations’ economy. There is no nation that can do without maritime sector and Nigeria cannot be an expection,” he said.
He said with the revenue maritime sector is generating, it cannot be excluded, saying that Customs, NIMASA, NPA and others cannot be excluded from the budget considering the chunk of revenue coming from them to the government’s coffers.
“I want to believe it is an oversight and it will be reammended. But If the government fails to capture in its 2023 budget that will take Nigeria back to another 20 years because we need to look at the current state of the maritime industry and see how we are struggling to restructure and repositioning the nation’s maritime industry. So if they fail to address that it will be a major setback for Nigeria,” he said.
Maritime expert and member of Presidential Committee on the Nigerian Customs Reforms, Lucky Amiwero, said
government has not been taking the nation’s maritime sector serious, saying that government just interested in collecting oil and non-oil export and import revenue and leave.
“If government is serious about the sector, the gridlock we still have in Apapa supposed to have ease up. That ports contribute to the certain percentage of the nation’s earning in terms of revenue base for the Federal Government, which they shared.
“The government is not interested in the maritime sector. Not only the port but we have other issues. I think there is a misgiving in the 2023 budget that is not too good for the country. The maritime sector supposed to have good infrastructure that supposed to be included in the budget.
“Look at all those port access roads that they are building for how many years. The roads that is not up to kilometers that is what we are building for many years and this is industry is where you derive revenue from,” he lamented.