SundayTransport
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PAUL OGBUOKIRI,
NEW TELEGRAPH ON SUNRDAY
paul_ogbuokiri@newtelegraphonline.com 0802-779-0557
APRIL 13, 2014
Importers lose N2bn to PAAR in four months •It’s time wasting–NAGAFF
Paul Ogbuokiri
N
igerian importers paid over N2 billion as storage/ demurrage charges to terminal operators and shipping companies from November 2013 to February. This was contained in an independent research carried out by Maritime Advocacy and Action Group. The group in the document made available to New Telegraph on Sunday, said the charges were resulting from delays the issuance
of the Nigeria Customs Service new Pre-Arrival Assessment Report for clearance of goods at the ports. MAAG noted in the document that the Webb Fontaine’s platform for PAAR administration in Nigeria is defective and its server breaks down 20 hours a day. Since the introduction of PAAR in November last year, clearing process takes place for only four hours a day at the Western ports. But shippers pay for the extra days their consignment stays in the ports as a result of the delay caused by the new clearing process. MAAG further noted that the to-
tal number of days the PAAR serve break down add to the clearing process, is 20 days per twenty footer equivalent unit. According to the study, the minimum demurrage the shipping companies charges per TEU, per day is N4, 000 and the minimum storage is N6,000. This means that the importer pays a total sum of N10, 000 per day, which will translate to N200,000 for the 20 days the container is delayed in the ports due to the delay. Meanwhile, the factional President of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs
Agents, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to cancel the PAAR because of the delays and huge loss it is causing shippers. He said that shippers are losing the money to storage/demurrages charges they are paying to the terminal operators and the shipping companies. He said that the shippers are seeking alternative to the confusion in the Western ports, by diverting their imports to the ports of Nigeria’s next door neighbours, Benin, Togo and Cameroon. Founder of National Association of
Government Approved Freight Forwarders, Dr Boniface Aniebonam in an online statement on Wednesday, threatened that the group would in due course call for “total cancellation of PAAR because it is time wasting and does not add any value to our foreign trade and Customs formalities.” He said that the use of provisional release under Customs Examination have shown that containers can be cleared within 48 hours, saying the Customs authorities and the government are yet to explain to the Nigerian shippers the benefits of PAAR/ RAR/CRI etc. New Telegraph on Sunday learnt that the NCS has already started blaming ‘untrue declaration’ as the cause of the failure of PAAR to achieve all they claimed it would achieve when they were trying to convince all and sundry to accept it as not only the alternative to the Destination Inspection Service Providers’ Risk Assessment Report, but the only answer to the challenge of achieving 48 hour clearance time in the country.
‘APM Terminals is the largest in West Africa’ Paul Ogbuokiri
W L-R: Acting Director General, National Information and Technology Development Agency, Dr. Ashiru Daura; Chairman, Digital Africa Global Consult Limited, Dr. Evans Woherem; and Managing Director/CEO, Red Sapphire Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Phil Okoroafor, during a working visit to NITDA in Lagos...Thursday
FRSC, Shell train volunteers on auto crashes
Taiwo Jimoh
T
he Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) have entered into an agreement to reduce road accidents and other traffic mishaps. FRSC Lagos State Commander, Chidi Nkwonta, said this on Friday while addressing volunteers of the National Community Post Crash Care training programme at the Lagos Command. Nkwonta said the training, which is a social partnership scheme between the corps and Shell, would equip the volunteers with adequate skill in handling
road crash victims, adding, “This pilot project is an initiative of the FRSC and is today being realised through a collaboration with Shell, which singlehandedly sponsored the project. The sector commander explained that the programme was designed to increase involvement of communities along the highways where crash usually occurred in other to enhance road safety and save lives during crashes. He further explained that the volunteers were engaged to render selfless service in form of first aid, treatment to road crash victims before the intervention of emergency agencies such as FRSC, NEMA,
NSCDC, Police and other agencies. Nkwonta said at the end of the training, the volunteers would be expected to acquire skills in the administration of first aid treatment to road crash victims while they would be exposed on how to reach out to emergency agencies such as the Red Cross and Fire Service at crash sites. Some of the participant who spoke with our correspondent after the training thanks the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Shell Development Corporation for given them the opportunity to save lives. According to Mr. Abraham Osobhamisiole the programme is unique and it is good if the
programme is spread across the country. Refresher courses should also be introduced to refresh the memory of the participant on what we have learnt to properly utilize them in the right way.” Another participant Havilah Udebhu said also initially before this training was orgainised am the type of person who is afraid of corpse and seeing blood. But with I have learnt here today, this would go a long way in saving lives on the highways. Even some time when am driving on the road and see accident I would just drive past them, but now that cannot happen anymore.”
ith the capacity to handle almost half of the total volume of containers passing through Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre; Lagos, APM Terminals Apapa Limited has been described as the largest terminal in West Africa. Chief Commercial Officer of APM Terminals Apapa Limited, Mr. Neil Fletcher, told delegates at the 12th Intermodal Conference and Exhibition held in Lagos last week that the leading terminal operator is a multiuser facility having 10 shipping lines calling at its terminal. He said the terminal is fully ISPS compliant and is the first container terminal to introduce RTGs (Rubber Tyre Gantry Cranes) operations in Nigeria. He said when APM Terminals took over operation of the Apapa container terminal in 2006, vessel waiting time was up to 30 days while the container yard had no markings, was waterlogged and filled with debris.