Stories By Godwin Oritse

The recent increase in terminal handling charges approved by the Minister of Transport Alhaji Suleiman Yusuf is currently raising dust in the maritime industry as the executive secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) Captain Adamu Biu has denied ever being part of the increment

Captain Biu stated that the the Honourable Minister set up a Committee to look into the request put forward by terminal operators seeking approval for them to increase their charges.

The Committee, according to Biu was not allowed to finish its work and submit its report before the management of the Nigeria Ports Authority went ahead of the Committee to write a report to the Minister and based on that report the Minister approved the said increment.

In the latest edition of the Maritime Management series (MMS), Biu stated that he still does not understand why NPA has to go ahead of the Committee to submit a report to the Minister.

Biu who described the increment as fraudulent said that NPA’s report to the Minister is not a true representation of of the Committee’s report.

“The truth of the matter is that the Minister of Transport set up a Committee to deliberate on the request by the terminal operators to increase their tariff about two months ago.

“That was before I went on leave, at that Committee, the Council was represented by the Director in charge of Shipping Services, while the Executive Director of Marine and Operations of the NPA Me Elizerbeth Egharevba represented NPA in the Committee as well as other Directors from other agencies under the Ministry of Transport.

“While I was on leave, I heard that the Minister had approved 20 percent increase in terminal handling charges and as you can see I just resumed and I am eager to find out what happened .

“When I called my director at the Ministry, what he told me was that the Committee did not finish its work before NPA wrote a report to the Minister and based on that, the Minister gave the approval

“I will meet the Minister and find out the kind of letter that necessitated the increment.

“It is obvious that the Committee did not complete its job from what my director told me.

“So, I am not aware under which which premise NPA wrote to the Minister seeking approval for the increase in handling charges.

“I am not a party to it, I have not seen the letter and I do not what it looks like, therefore I can not say why the approval was given .

“But I am aware that the Committee did not finish its job, I will go and see the Minister and give our position to him.

“However, I believed that the Minister acted based on what he was told

Definitely,we are going to find out what they told the Minister and I am going to tell him that the Committee he set up was not part of the submission NPA made.

“This is our position, it is unfortunate”.

On the administration of the Cargo Tracking Note scheme, Captain explained the CTN is a project of the Union of African Shippers’ Council that has been hijacked by the Nigerian Ports Authority.

He said that it is in Nigeria the the Port Authority administer such project adding that in other African countries it is their Shippers Councils.

He explained that the scheme is not a money making project like it is now in Nigeria.

“It is essentially to generate database of cargoes coming from Europe, it is done at the point of loading as a data capture document, it is not a security document that spells out issues of toxic wastes and related issues.

“ had started collecting CTN levy when toxic waste was discovered here, when ammunition were discovered in Nigeria. “It was nit CTN that discovered that, so the concept of CTN has been wrongly presented to the Nigerian public. “More worrisome is the sharing formula of 40- 60 percent.

“The foreign operator takes 40 percent of the proceed, while the government takes 60 percent making the government believe that it is a revenue sharing phenomenon” Biu stated