By Onuoha Ukeh

Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, has called for a clarification on the directive on government agencies that should operate at the ports.

At an interactive with a group of journalists, she denied that NPA has issues with any government agency operating in the port, but stated it was only enforcing a directive of the Federal Government.

She acknowledged that only NPA and seven other government agencies, including Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Port Health, Directorate of State Security (DSS), Nigerian Police, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), NIMASA and NDLEA, were authorised to be at the ports. Usman spoke on this and other issues. 

Excerpt:

Responsibility as NPA Managing Director

My first thought was that it was going to be very challenging and an incredible new experience. The fact that I was not deeply involved in ports activity before my appointment and had no ties in the industry actually worked in my favour. I approached my new role with enthusiasm and confidence having spent most of my working life in the public sector.

Situation on assumption of duty

When I arrived, I met a well trained personnel needing motivation. We had to deal with issues such as revenue leakages, indebtedness to third parties, among others. We also had to handle the challenge of concession agreements that did not quite place a demand on all parties to fulfil their own part.

We met decayed port infrastructure that required renewal and ports that weren’t operating at an optimum level in line with best practices. So in a nutshell, what we met on ground did not align with our expectations considering that we are operating in one of the largest economies in Africa. 

Impact of your administration on NPA and maritime industry

In our 12 months, we have made considerable progress and the efforts cut across both our operational and administrative endeavours. We have commissioned the Command and Control, Communication and Intelligence Centre for NPA. This facility will serve as surveillance point for all activities and as an information network centre for security agencies at the ports. In June 2017, we launched the provisional, final billing and customer portal module of Revenue Invoice Management System aimed at improving our service offering, partner relationship; creating efficient payment method, maximising revenue and eradicating loss associated with fraud and revenue leakage.

To further improve operational efficiency, we recently acquired and commissioned four new tugboats namely MT Daura, MT Ubima, MT Uromi and MT Majiya. Most importantly, we have commenced the process of the review of concession agreements to ensure seamless collaboration for a sustained development of the Maritime industry. This, we believe, will introduce a new dimension in our operations.

The NPA had, even before the executive order, developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), establishing a dedicated terminal to handle exports aimed at diversifying the economy and improving earnings in line with the mandate of the Federal Government.

The dedicated terminals include Ikorodu Lighter Terminal for Lagos, Shoreline Logistics Terminal for Calabar Port, BUA Ports and Terminal (warehouse measuring 2.896sqm) and Port and Terminal Operators Limited (warehouse ‘A’ measuring 2.760sqm) for Rivers Port. All terminals have been mandated to establish dedicated desks to handle all documentations on export, receipt of consignment and the loading of vessels.

For a long time, the challenge of bad port access roads, which has continually caused untold hardship to both port users and residents of Apapa, has been a recurring decimal. To address this, the authority is conducting a full assessment of all port access roads across the country. Our partnership with the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing (FMWH) resulted, in the first instance, in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the FMWH, Dangote Group and Flour Mills for the reconstruction of the Wharf Road in Apapa. The project cost is put at N4.34 billion out of which the NPA is contributing the sum of N1.829 billion.

To address the challenge of bureaucratic and chaotic clearance of cargoes,  we have, in collaboration with NCS and Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), developed the operational framework of establishing the National Single Window, Ports Community System and scanning services. This is aimed at simplifying and harmonising formalities, procedures and the related exchange of information and documents between the various partakers in the port operations value chain.

Our effort in restoring investor’s confidence in the port industry has also started yielding the desired result with the China Harbour Engineering Company planning to take up 15 per cent shareholding in the Lekki Deep Seaport project. Dubai Port World is negotiating a partnership agreement with Josepdam Port Services while the Tanger Med Port of Morocco is also indicating willingness to develop a green field terminal logistic base. We are confident that these initiatives will result in a more efficient port sector that will favourably compete and ensure we achieve our vision of being the leading port in Africa. 

Weathering the storms

It is important to point out that there are different unions operating in the port industry. The NPA’s in-house unions which oversee the interest of the workers have been quite cooperative. We have had the ports shut down for only one day over the proposed Ports and Harbours Bill. It was called off on the first day of the strike. The unions had concerns over certain aspects of the bill as it relates to retrenchment of staff and harbour operations being ceded to the private sector. We have drawn their attention to the fact that the bill will not in any way bring about retrenchment or retirement of staff. The assets and liabilities of NPA will be transferred to the new Ports and Harbour Authority. The bill will grant permission to the authority to concession some aspects of its operations but it does not stipulate that harbour operation would be handed over to a private company.

We have also explained to the union that they will have an opportunity to make their submissions during the public hearing. We encourage them to do that. NPA  as an entity has made submissions during the public hearing and we would make additional submission  to ensure that all areas of concern to us are addressed. By and large, we have put in place a system of constant dialogue that will ensure that we do not have unresolved issues with the unions.

On the other hand, we have had some industrial actions organised by truck operators and freight forwarders, which are not a direct result of any fault of the authority. Their agitations border on port access roads (which are under the direct supervision of the FMWH) and cargo clearance procedure.

However, I have said it in several fora that the authority recognises that all agencies are one and under the same Federal Government and so we will collaborate  and lend our weight on any effort that will solve the lingering challenge. This is because all these issues, if not resolved, will have an impact on our operations as a port authority.

Goal of reform and benefit to Nigeria

Nigerian ports are a gateway to the country and they are key to growing our economy. The ultimate goal of the reform is to strengthen the position of Nigeria’s ports and make them competitive. One of the two approaches to achieve this is to have a competitive pricing and tariff regime. We are therefore conducting a study to determine respective tariffs and pricing regimes across the region. We will review our tariff regimes once the study is complete.  We also need to be operationally efficient, which means ensuring that we are ready for vessels, that our channels are free of wrecks, and that any ship that is coming to berth in Nigeria has access to the necessary infrastructure and equipment. We are also reviewing our concession agreements after 10 years.  Within that review, there will be critical issues around equipment and infrastructure deployment, ensuring that our terminals are operationally efficient and able to provide the service required. We have identified gaps in our infrastructure and have allocated budget so that funds can be deployed to improve our set-up over 2017. We are going to accommodate all interests as long as the overall benefit of the authority and Nigeria is not compromised by any means.

Breaking monopoly at the ports

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Government has continually made efforts to re-position the maritime industry in line with global trends and in order to enhance the growth of the nation’s economy. The Federal Government embarked on a comprehensive port reform initiative with a desire to build a robust and responsive economy that will have the private sector as its back bone. This review will ensure that all parties operate within the boundaries of the agreement and achieve the goal of encouraging healthy competition and a level playing field for all operators.

Upon assumption of duty, we were confronted with protests by some terminal operators over the designation of only one terminal operator as exclusive handlers of oil and gas cargoes. We found this absurd and against the spirit of port reforms. As a ports authority, we are modelling all our operations in line with global best practices, which only recognise three broad classes, namely bulk, container and multipurpose cargo. This is the practice globally. There is no special recognition or designation for oil and gas anywhere in the world. But the point should also be made that even Nigeria did not contemplate this categorisation at the point of concessioning in 2005.

The agreements signed with concessionaires categorised the ports into the three classes I mentioned earlier and nothing more. So all importers were free to choose any terminal or port for the discharge of their cargoes, subject to the presence of all requisite regulatory agencies at such ports as required by extant regulations and in line with the policy of promoting competition and value for money.

So this oil and gas designation is a misnomer that has been corrected by a presidential approval, which has mandated that we go back to the three broad classes of bulk, container and multipurpose cargo. Consequently, the NPA and the BPE are to streamline the payment of shipping and other fees based on cargo type rather than on the basis of designation of terminals to ensure that there is no loss of revenue to the Federal Government based on terminals that importers choose to bring cargoes into the country.

Transparency at NPA and MoU signed with BudgIT

Apart from making our budget open to the public, we also observed that tariffs of ports all over Africa were not open for customers to access and know how much they will pay for services in NPA; we have changed that and our tariffs are accessible anywhere in the world because it has been published on our website. We have also directed all terminal operators to do same.

Co-operation with sister agencies

The authority is not at loggerheads with any Federal Government agency operating in the port over exclusion of some of these agencies from physical presence on site. The authority is only enforcing the directive of the government vide a letter received from the office of the Minister of Finance in August 2011, which specifically stated that only eight government agencies, namely NPA, NCS, Port Health, DSS, Nigerian Police, NIS, NIMASA and NDLEA, are allowed to reside in the port. This still subsists.

However, there is need to clarify this directive. It does not stop any Federal Government agency from coming to the port to perform its statutory functions. This can only be done on invitation and immediately after performing their duties, agencies not covered by that letter are to go back to their offices outside the port.

This directive will not affect the relationship between the authority and other sister agencies because the reason for this directive is to reduce the bottleneck usually experienced in our port on delivery procedures and this will actually fast-track delivery and documentation in the port. 

Collaboration with people and organisations from the public and private sectors

Shipping is an international business, which requires information sharing and close collaboration. In consideration of this, we have identified the need to constantly engage all stakeholders in the maritime industry in order to synergise and pool our collective resources together, both human and material, to achieve our desire to establish a virile port industry. For example, we need to ensure that our waterways are secured, hence, we need to support the Navy in carrying out its functions. In so doing, we donated three boats to help them forestall the operations of illegal activities in our channel.

This synergy will also see the NPA link its command, control and intelligence centre with the Falcon Eye of the Navy. This will ensure sharing of information and intelligence reports aimed at securing our waters. 

Recovered money

The funds involved were Cargo Tracking Notes in the sum of €6,606,016.07 domiciled in First City Monument Bank (FCMB). At the time the new management came in, the fund was still in the commercial bank as against the directive of the Federal Government to transfer all funds to TSA. On assumption of office, we sought for necessary approval from relevant authorities and pursued it and ensured that a euro denominated bank account was approved for the funds to be transferred into CBN.

In a related development, it was observed that the revenue collected by Heritage Bank in the sum of $24,370,061 was not being swept to CBN in line with the TSA policy. This was revenue collection made between September 2015 and July 2016. Upon discovery of the failure of Heritage Bank to sweep funds to CBN, the authority suspended the bank from further revenue collections.

Spirited efforts had been made through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Office of  the Accountant General of the Federation to get the money back but only $4 million has been paid so far. Following several letters and a series of meetings with the CBN to mandate Heritage Bank to pay these funds, the CBN had in January indicated that it will guarantee the funds but we are yet to receive confirmation. As at today, the authority has an outstanding refund of $21 million with Heritage Bank. We have expressed our dissatisfaction and frustration to the CBN and the OAGF over the non-remittance and have sought for sanctioning of the bank.

24 hours operations at the ports

The Federal Government, in a letter dated May 16, 2017, issued an executive order on promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment and sequel to this order, the NPA commenced immediate implementation of some of the directives applicable to the ports. One of the executive orders mandated 24 hours operations at the Apapa Ports and the authority had already commenced 24 hours port operations. Some of the actions already taken include the provision of marine services (pilotage and berthing of vessels) on 24-hour basis.  For instance, our records showed that from June 18, 2017 when the order took off, our Harbours Department handled 20 vessels after 19.00 hours at Lagos Port in the first two weeks of the commencement of 24 hours operation.

Also, I had, immediately upon the issuance of the executive orders by the Acting President, called all stakeholders to meetings to discuss how each agency should position itself to fulfil its mandate. The security agencies have promised to ensure that they will provide round the clock security needed for operations.

Fallout of such meetings was a joint implementation committee comprising all approved agencies working in the port. They have submitted their report and implementation expectations have been outlined. I also visited the port in the midnight to have an on-the-spot assessment of how prepared all agencies are in achieving the 24-hour operation.

NPA’s complicity in the alleged disappearance of 282 vessels

We issued a statement recently to clarify our position.  The Senate Committee sent two sets of documents to us to back up the allegations that these vessels were missing. We have looked through the documents without being able to substantiate the claim. Now, without prejudice to the information at the disposal of members of the committee, we discovered that out of the 29 items in the first set of documents we got, we could only identify five vessels. There was a list of 29 alright, but 24 of them were repetitions of the five vessels that were identified.

There was a second document of 10 volumes of items numbering 1-1252 that was passed on to us through the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC). We couldn’t even review these documents because they did not give us most of the information necessary for the verification. We discovered that no vessel names were provided, no dates of arrival of the vessels were given, no port of call and name of terminal where vessel berthed were provided and no rotation number of vessels was supplied. Without these information, it would be impossible for us to investigate these allegations. So we have conveyed these observations to the Senate Committee and look forward to receiving the required information that will enable full investigation. What we can assure the Senate and all Nigerians of is that this administration of the NPA is committed to transparency and will always work in the best interest of the country.

Legacy to be left

I would like to leave behind a motivated workforce that can match their counterparts in most developed countries. I would like to achieve the desired level of operational efficiency expected from the largest growing economy in the world. I would like to leave behind a competitive port industry that will serve as a hub in the West and Central Africa. Most importantly, I would love to have instituted a transparent and seamless system, which will ensure that the country’s resources do not get frittered away and that Nigerians have the benefit of national endowment.