Chairman Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), Princess Vicky Haastrup has fingered the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) as the reason why doing business at the ports has remained costly and why Nigeria ports has been rated backward when compared to others globally.
Speaking on the impact of automation on cargo handling at the ports, at a townhall meeting on achieving effective digitisation of the maritime industry, organised Thursday in Lagos by the League of Maritime Editors, the STOAN Chairman noted frankly that the ports will remain backwards if the NCS continues to enjoy manual examination of cargoes which the world has left behind many decades ago.
According to her, manual examination of cargoes has assumed the proportion of an endemic sore point in Nigeria’s Customs administration. The Nigeria Customs Service performs 100 per cent physical examination on almost all cargoes passing through the ports.
“ This is not efficient and it constitutes a huge drawback to port efficiency. The manual inspection by Customs contributes in no small measure to the high dwell time of cargoes at our ports. It is also the main reason why importers and agents troop to the port daily. This is in addition to breeding corruption through numerous human contacts.
“The solution is for the Federal Government to engage the private sector, as was done under the previous Destination Inspection scheme, to acquire high-end scanners for use of the Nigeria Customs Service.
“It is not enough to merely acquire a couple of scanners as government is doing at present. A sufficient number of high-end scanners should be acquired to put a definitive end to manual cargo examination. The effective usage and maintenance of the scanners are also critical. Left in the hands of government officials, the scanners may be grounded in no time – as it happened before – and the system will be reset to the manual era. “The services of risk assessment/management companies should therefore be engaged and retained for the purposes of providing, effectively utilizing and maintaining the scanners. If we are truly desirous of creating efficiency at our ports, manual examination will have to be reduced to less than 10 per cent of the cargoes handled at the port, in line with international best practices.
“Full automation of the clearing process and the deployment of sufficient number of scanners at the port will invariably cut down the multiple checks of cargoes by Customs and other security agencies.
On Port Cost, Haastrup refered to study conducted by Akintola Williams Deloitte in 2017 which blamed the high cost of doing business at the nation’s seaports on the Nigeria Customs Service and other government agencies. The study stated that Customs processes are responsible for not less than 81.7 per cent of the charges incurred by consignees. It said Shipping Companies are responsible for 13.8 per cent of the port cost; Terminal Operators 1.4 per cent; Transporters 1.4 per cent and Clearing Agents 1.7 per cent.
“A major reason for the high cost associated with Customs is manual processes.
“Customs processes must be simplified and automated to complement the gains recorded through the Federal Government’s port reforms. The time is ripe to deploy the much talked about National Single Windows and e-Customs to check manual Customs processes and the multiplicity of Customs units deployed all around the ports, the port gates and even on the roads to intercept cargoes already cleared from the port.
“Government must now work with operators to turn our ports to smart ports by deploying a Customs-driven, port-wide, cloud-based software that will create new operational flows, which will eliminate human contacts, expunge all forms of manual processes from the system and help the port function better,” she declared.
Earlier in his welcome address, President League of Maritime Editors and Publishers, Kingsley Anaroke while highlighting that global ports has gone digital way back,he said, in Nigeria “in the context of today, we are simply asking for a mere system automation which is an elementary stage of digitalization given the backwardness and the endemic operational challenges in the maritime
Industry.
“Automation is the creation and application of technologies to produce and deliver goods and services with minimal human intervention. The main driver for automation in container terminals is to reduce the cost per handled container, that is, cost per move in the terminal, while improving reliability, predictability, safety of operations and reduced environmental impact.
“The questions begging for answers then, are: How far has the terminal operators gone with this process? What is the preparedness of the agencies to deliver a real-time Smart ports? How much are voted for the digitalization process and what are the timelines? How serious is the media and stakeholders in holding the operators accountable to deliver this process?
“This Town Hall Meeting is expected to answer some these questions as we call for a sustainability international summit in the maritime without prejudice to the outcome today’s event to further commit government and international community to drive this future today,” he noted.
Picture: Hameed Ali, Nigeria Customs Boss
