The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission Chief and Senior Resident Representative for Nigeria, Mr Amine Mati, has identified absence of national single window platform, scanning machines for customs operations as well as poor logistics and road infrastructures as the major constraints of Nigerian ports.
Speaking after taking a tour of the Lagos ports at weekend as part of compilation and publication of the IMF Economic Outlook Review, Mati said that the delegations from IMF were on the visit to inspect the port activities and determine the challenges, the priorities and policies put in place by the Federal Government.
Addressing maritime reporters during the visit, he said: “We were able to discuss the port congestion and the clearance time still remains challenging, we are trying to determine the different policies and priorities put in place, particularly the scanners, national single window is very important to accelerate the process, the roads outside the port is also important for efficiency.
“As trade is picking up, the port is an important aspect of Nigerian economy, particularly in Lagos, where the activity is. The Nigerian port is challenging as the stakeholders and agencies are recognizing, some of the challenges remains the logistics, the scanners, the single window clearance process, all needs to be accelerated so that goods can be discharged quickly.”
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello has said that the Shippers Council is working with the shipping companies to reduce the freight cost to about 30 per cent.
Bello, who disclosed this when he hosted the IMF delegation, said both NSC and shipping companies would soon go into an agreement in order to ensure cost charges is reduced as part of efforts to promote ease of doing business at the ports.
According to him, NSC is concerned about the ease of doing business. For now, there is 100 per cent cargo examination going on at the ports due to lack of scanners, adding that by the second quarter of the year, all these challenges would be addressed.
He added: “We are trying to build first of all, a Port Community System so that we will have operational synergy and then of course, national single window which is the simplification of all processes, we need to be open and transparent, we have to reduce the corruption at the ports and we need to automate the ports for faster clearance of cargoes”
“What we are doing now is about 18-20 days cargo dwell time, we want to reduce it to seven. The ship turn around time also is 4.1, we want to reduce it further, we want to attract more cargoes here, not only for imports but also for exports and that is the whole issue.”
THE SUN, NIGERIA