By GODFREY BIVBERE

Stakeholders in the maritime industry have expressed mixed reactions on the fortune of the sector in the out-going year, 2014. While some said that the fortune of the industry improved slightly in 2014, others were of the opinion that operators faced a worse situation this year compared to the previous year.

Pre-Arrival Assessment Report

The year started with the introduction of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report, PAAR, a scheme that was received with mixed feelings by importers and their agents alike.

PAAR was introduced by the management of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, after the expiration of the contract between the federal government and the three service providers – Cotecna Destination Inspection, SGS and Globalscan Systems Ltd in December, 2013.

The Comptroller- General of Customs, Dikko Inde Abdullahi, said towards the end of 2013, “We have invested a lot preparing for the feat. Service Providers took a minimum of five working days to issue their Risk Assessment Report, RAR. We convinced government that we can produce the replacement in six hours. Now, we have achieved that in less than an hour.”  Weeks into the implementation of the new policy, there was outcry over delay in the issuance of the document.

To obtain PAAR, an importer has to provide the purchasing invoice and other three documents from the manufacturer before he or she would be allowed to open a ‘Form M’. After which, the person would be given approval to import the goods. The manufacturer will then give the importer the original Bill of Lading, Certificate of Value, packing list and other documents which the importer will also send to the Customs through the bank to prepare PAAR and send back to the bank. This process is prone to delay because before the importer would be able to collect all the required documents, the goods would have been in Nigeria and it will still take another one month to obtain the PAAR.

President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Remi Bello, attributed the delay to capacity issues that needed to be urgently addressed by the NCS in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Finance.

LCCI also argued that the new arrangement being managed by the NCS is “evidently fraught with capacity challenges”.

While calling for the pre-release of cargoes pending the resolution of the transitional problems, LCCI argued that without the issuance of PAAR, other cargo clearance procedures cannot progress.

Sanction over ISPS code

Just as the issue of PAAR was easing up, the maritime industry was hit with the news of the expected sanction of the country by the government of the United States of America, USA, over non-implementation of the International Ships and Ports Facility Security (ISPS) Code.

This followed a damning report by US Coast Guard, which exposed the poor security situation at Nigeria’s seaport facilities.

Under the blockade, the US will stop shipping services to Nigeria and also mobilize all her trading partners to do same as part of measures to compel Nigeria to comply with the enforcement of the ISPS Code.

Both the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, held stakeholders’ meeting to sensitize everybody on the need to be pro-active on the security challenges currently facing the nation’s ports.

Consequently, NIMASA was able to put measures in place to stop the much expected sanction.

Director-General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, said then that the agency has “taken up the challenge in ensuring that the country does not suffer the embarrassment of such sanctions as contained in the report”.

He explained that an action plan has been developed and immediately activated to aggressively close the reported gaps. He gave some of the measures as dispatching competent recognized security organisations to conduct security surveys and assessments aimed at identifying and correcting the deficiencies and any other observed vulnerabilities.

“Whilst focusing on these facilities listed in the USCG report, measures are already underway to address the generality of Port Facilities (PFs) in the nation’s maritime domain.

“This action plan has been given a nod by the USCG and it has pledged to support the efforts of the DA (Designated Authority) in ensuring the issues raised are remedied. The DA has outlined its implementation framework in the form of handbook to enable the public understand its agenda with respect to this new implementation regime”, said Akpobolokemi.

Bomb Blast at Apapa

The next event of major development in the industry was the car explosion that rocked the port city of Apapa in June. There were divergent views as to whether it was gas explosion as claimed by government officials or bomb blast as some eye-witnesses alleged.

The Lagos State government, and the police, denied the blast at Apapa was caused by a bomb, claiming it was a fire incident caused by a canister.

However, Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, said he ordered the strike and chided the Lagos governor, Babatunde Fashola, for claiming it was not a bomb, according to the French news agency, AFP.

“A bomb went off in Lagos. I ordered (the bomber) who went and detonated it,” a news agency had reported Mr. Shekau as saying.

NIMASA, NLNG dispute

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, in May, 2014 halted the export of liquefied natural gas from Nigeria due to a dispute over fees and taxes, blocking ships at a facility producing seven percent of global LNG supply.

The NLNG is a public private partnership initiative with shareholders, including Shell at 25.6 percent, state firm Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC with 49 percent, Total LNG Nigeria at 15 percent and Eni at 10.4 percent.

NLNG said it made a $20 million payment under protest following a flare-up of the dispute in May while taking the matter to court.

NIMASA spokesman, Isichei Osamgbi, however, denied it was involved in any court case with NLNG and alleged the firm owed far more than the $20 million paid. He however declined to provide specific figures.

The federal government had to intervene in the face-off between NIMASA and NLNG over unpaid levies amounting to billions of naira.

Presidential tour of Maritime facilities

In June, President Goodluck Jonathan, toured Maritime facilities in Delta State being promoted by NIMASA. The President visited Nigeria Maritime University’s temporary site in Kurutie, and performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the permanent site located at Okerenkoko, both in Warri Southwest Local Government Area of the state.

President Goodluck also performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the Dockyard and Shipyard sited at Okerenkoko, which is expected to build and maintain various sizes of vessels.

New National Shipping line

In June, the federal government directed NIMASA to re- float a new national shipping line.

Director General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, said that the new carrier will be floated on a PPP basis and that the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) went under because it was purely a government business which was poorly managed.

The NIMASA boss said the new National Carrier will help return traffic to local ship owners. However, the promise by the apex maritime regulatory agency did not materialize.

Development of Inland waters

Also in June, the National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA wooed banks and other financial institutions to help in the development of the nation’s waterways. Managing Director of NIWA, Maryam Chiroma, said the Authority was desirous of improving the sector to attract Nigerians to water transportation.

Operators are, however, still waiting to the see the fulfilment of the promise and the outcome of an international workshop for that reason.