THE NATION WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2013
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MARITIME
Furniture, textile, plastics flood Lagos, other ports T
HE National Association of Government approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has petitioned the Minister of Finance Dr Ngozi OkonjoIweala over the large number of prohibited goods uncleared at the ports. It urged the minister to advise the Customs to invoke Section 31 of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) to deal with the uncleared cargoes “in the interest of the economy and revenue generation.” According to the association, the containers of goods that fall under the prohibition list at the ports
•Freight forwarders petition Minister Stories by Oluwakemi Dauda Maritime Correspondent
are many. The freight forwarders asked the Ministry of Finance and the Customs to direct the owners to take delivery of the goods after penalising them. An April 2 letter obtained by The Nation, the Founder of the Association, Dr Boniface Aniebonam, said prohibited imported goods such as furniture, textile and plastic materials and others items were congesting the port.
The goods, Aniebonam said, were not dangerous, but caught under the law meant to protect local manufacturers. He wondered why the ministry and Customs could not capitalise on this development to enhance revenue generation. Government, NAGAFF said, would be shooting itself in the foot if it sells such goods as auction. NAGAFF pleaded for the importers, saying: “We should consider the fact that these importers borrowed
from the bank to effect these imports. It will also help in decongesting the ports and at the same time raise revenue for the government, and above all facilitate trade. “In view of the above, there is the urgent need for the Nigeria Customs Service to engage the trading public and the freight agents in a massive culture of trade compliant awareness campaign and education. This will educate the trading public on why they should obey and respect the import guidelines as well as its enforcement by the government,” the group said.
20 graft assessors for Warri, Calabar, Onne terminals T
HE Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has deployed over 20 Corruption Risk Assessors (CRA) in Lagos, Onne, Calabar, Warri ports to curb graft. The officers, sources said, would be at the ports till the end of June to avoid revenue loss by the government. The Commission, it was learnt, is working in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to reduce corruption in the seaports. Speaking with The Nation after a meeting organised by ICPC in Lagos, Alhaji
Ozi Salami, who represented the ICPC Chairman, Mr Ekpo Nta, said maritime was one of the highest revenue generating sectors in the country, adding that it must be guarded to avoid losses and ensure efficient running of the port. The meeting was attended by the officials of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR) and international partners. CRA, he said, is a corruption prevention tool, which works with an organisation’s management to iden-
tify areas prone to corruption, proffer recommendations, and develop integrity plans that would strengthen accountability and transparency. “We are not here to apportion blame, but to carry out a systems study. Since it is much better and wiser to prevent the occurrence of corruption than to expend huge resources in investigations and prosecution after the damage had been done, the Commission places much stock on the CRA process,” he said. Leader of the UNDP team Prof. Sam Egwu said the
corruption risk assessment process being driven primarily by ICPC, TUGAR and BPP, began in 2011 with the development of a corruption risk assessment methodology. The methodology, he said, led to the development of a comprehensive training module that has been used to train over 60 CRAs drawn from the ministries, departments and agencies at both federal and state levels; civil society groups and the anti-corruption agencies. Egwu said it was from the pool of trained assessors that the 20-man team was constituted to work with experts on this pilot scheme.
NPA, US partner on maritime security
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HE United States (US) is to partner the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) to make the seaport safe for business. An official of the American Consulate-General in Lagos, Mr Rolf Olson, said the US was concerned about the country’s ability to tackle terrorism. Olson spoke when he and Ronald Rhinehart visited NPA Managing Director Mallam Habib Abdullahi in his office. Emphasising the need for the ports to be secured, Olson said the American Embassy had made its observation known to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. He said there was need for both countries to work together to make global maritime activities safe. Replying, Abdullahi said NPA had perfected programmes, which would make the authority to be alive to its responsibilities and enhance port security. He said the programmes were designed to improve the performance of the security division of the authority in the areas of personnel recruitment, training and acquisition of necessary working tools and equipment to safeguard the port. Abdullahi said he was determined to improve the outlook and the performances of the security division of the
Shippers to govt: extend TIN registration THE Lagos State branch of the Shippers Association has urged the Federal Government to extend the May 2013 deadline set for Tax Identification Number (TIN) registration. The General Secretary of the group, Mr Jonathan Nicol, said the extension would enable more shippers to key into the process. He said many shippers would not be able to meet up with the deadline, noting that an extension was necessary as many stakeholders in the maritime industry had been queuing up at the offices of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to get a TIN card to no avail. He said the long processes of getting the TIN card had been affecting shipping procedures, adding that no shipper would be able to transact any business without the
TIN card. His words: “The Federal Government through the Nigeria Customs says importers must have a Tax Identification Number and a deadline has been issued. ”At the end of May, any company that doesn’t have the TIN would find it difficult to operate, to raise Form M and they will find it difficult to even import their goods. The shipping industry is huge and massive; it is not something that can be achieved within one year. ”It should be a continuous exercise. There is no need to be in a hurry. If you want to get a regular data of shippers make it a continuous thing, so that any shipper who wants to go into that business can now first go to the Federal Inland Revenue to get the Tax Identification Number and then gradually begin to understand the system.”
Retreat for stakeholders, reporters A two-day maritime retreat for stakeholders and reporters covering maritime will hold tomorrow and Friday at the Customs Staff College, Gwagwalada, Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The theme of the retreat is: Effective media/public relations synergy for maritime development. According to a statement, government agencies billed to make presentations at the event include the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and the Nigeria Customs Service
(NCS). Dignitaries expected at the event include the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, who is the Special Guest of Honour; Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, who is the Chief Host, while the Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, who will chair the occasion. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, is the Lead Resource Person, while the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, will deliver the keynote address.
Lawyers seek industry’s growth MARITIME lawyers have urged the Federal Government to put necessary policies in place to promote the industry. Speaking with reporters in Lagos, the lawyers said the dearth of human and material capacities has been a source of worry in the sector. They called on relevant government agencies at the port to complement stakeholders’efforts in capacity-building, noting that businesses blink first
in the event of any government policy breakdown. Speaking on behalf of others, a maritime lawyer and consultant in the industry, Mr Frank Simpson, said the dream of the youth, who seek employment, is only realisable through human capacity building in the sector. He said the country can be the number one maritime nation in Africa if human capacity building is taken seriously.
Import bill drops to $35.4b
• From left: Abdullahi and Olson during the visit.
authority to enable it to cope with the increasing security challenges. NPA, he said, has trained officers in all the seaports, adding that the ports are improving on the requirements of International Ship
& Port Facility Security Code (ISPS) code. He added that under the concession regime, the management of NPA still oversees the security of the ports in conjunction with other sister organisations. While commending the
PHOTO: OLUWAKEMI DAUDA
United States government for initiating the move to ensure safety in the global maritime activity, Mallam Abdullahi assured that NPA would support the initiative, as it was in its best interest to tackle terrorism in the ports and its environs.
NIGERIA’S import bill dropped by 43 per cent to $35.4 billion in the last one year, according to the report released by the Renaissance Capital (RenCap). The investment and finance firm said in its reports obtained by The Nation that the import bill is equivalent to 13 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year. The decrease in imports, according to the firm, was across all categories, noting that machinery and transport equipment, Nigeria’s biggest import segment, declined by 63 per cent, following modest growth of two per cent in 2011. RenCap stated that this showed a slowdown in fixed investment and growth. Noting that Nigeria’s trade surplus surged 75 per cent to $105.9 billion, which is 39 per cent of GDP, based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) trade data, the firm said that this largely explained the increase in the current account surplus to 7.5 per cent of GDP in September 2012, as against 3.6 per cent in 2011.
”We expect revisions to the import numbers. We find it odd that while imports declined across all categories, unspecified imports swelled 600 times to $12 billion in 2012. Unspecified imports surged from less than one per cent of total imports in preceding years to 31 per cent in 2012. “We are likely to see a significant revision of imports by categories as seen in the downward revision of the errors and omissions’ negative balance in the 2010 balance of payments. While the eventual revised total import bill will still show a decline, in our view, the extent of the year on year decreases are likely to narrow as a larger share of the unspecified items are identified post-revisions. “A slowdown in oil earnings growth largely explains the decline in total exports earnings growth to 14 per cent in 2012 as against 44 per cent in 2011. We think the oil earnings’ growth slowdown to nine per cent in 2012 as against 48 per cent in 2011 was largely due to a flat Bonny Light crude oil price of,” the report said.