The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has asked the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to ensure that it gets part of the proceeds from the auction of seized overtime cargo.
The Managing Director of NPA, Mohammed Bello Koko made the demand on Thursday when the Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, visited him at the NPA headquarters in Lagos.
Recall that NCS commenced e-auction of seized vehicles and other cargo, including overtime cargo, on 16th January.
“On the issue of overtime cargo, a committee has been set up led by the Customs Service and an assessment has been done. Overtime cargoes have occupied a lot of economic space and it is creating difficulty in clearing cargo because there isn’t space. The ports are very small. However, the auction has actually started, the bid has started and the overtime containers have been moved to some locations but in our initial discussions, we have asked that all the money Nigerian Ports Authority spent should also be considered.
“We have moved cargo to Ikorodu and we are also going to be involved in other expenditures. But, we saw a circular where somebody who was instructed did not do as instructed. They forgot to put NPA as one of the agencies that will benefit from the auction proceeds.
“I believe that you can stop them to correct that mistake because we have really spent a lot of money when it comes to overtime cargo. We believe that it should also be made a regular thing whether quarterly or once a year but let it be something that we don’t need to wait for 10 or five years before overtime containers are moved out of the seaports. I am so happy to see that containers have already started leaving the terminals to locations where they will be auctioned. That showed that you are listening,” Bello Koko told his guest.
The NPA Managing Director also asked the Nigeria Customs Service to streamline its export processing desks to reduce the bottlenecks around non-oil exports at the port.
“We have raised the issue of export and seen a tremendous increase in percentage and quantity of export cargo and we appreciate that but we have an issue of multiple export desks.
“The first time we met, I raised the need to find a way to collaborate and collapse the export desks at the ports so that an exporter will report to that export desk where you have the combined desk. That way, it will be easier to facilitate export cargoes instead of multiple desks that currently exist,” he said.
In his response, the Customs CG said the vision of NPA to ensure port efficiency would help the service facilitate trade and regain lost cargoes to neighboring country’s ports.
“This visit is more of vision alignment because we are in tandem with NPA on port efficiency which will facilitate trade. Also, NPA through all these programs will also promote the competitiveness of our ports, which aligns with our vision because Nigerians are diverting their cargoes to neighboring ports and we must do everything to ensure that our ports remain competitive.
“The Nigerian economy is driven by our ports and finally we want to make our ports more efficient because when the ports are more efficient, it would translate into better efforts in revenue generation so anything and everything that would help to reduce the time and the costs are what we would be exploring,” he said.
Adeniyi, however, did not address the concerns of NPA regarding proceeds from the auction of overtime cargo and streamlining of export processing desks.
Both resolved to work together to facilitate trade and drive exports as part of measures to support the Federal Government’s economic diversification effort.