National
Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, NCMDLCA,
has called on the Federal Government to allocate forex to shippers to
enable them embark on their import business, even as it blamed the
government for the sharp drop in the level of imports into Nigeria in
recent times.
 |
| Lucky Amiwero, National President of NCMDLCA |
The
Council that in as much as government through the Central Bank of
Nigeria, CBN, is trying to shore up Nigeria’s foreign external
reserves through conservation of forex, it would still need to make
it easy for importers to access forex for the importation of
essential goods and raw materials required by manufacturers for
production.
The
National President of the NCMDLCA, Lucky Amiwero, said that
government was responsible for the anomaly through the fiscal and
monetary policies of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the CBN
which have made tariff on goods including rice prohibitive and which
has made it impossible for importers to have access to foreign
exchange a t the official rate for importation of goods.
Delivering
a paper in Lagos on “Concept of Concession and Component of Port
Regulation” at a three day seminar he organized for journalists of
the newly formed Federated Maritime Media Chapel, FMMC, of the
Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, he said government must take
measures to make forex available to shippers to boost importation.
According
to him, 70 per cent of the traffic that is expected to be coming
into Nigeria is being lost because of cash crunch , high cost of
funds and the frequent fluctuating nature of the naira in relation
to other major currencies regardless of the fact that the local
currency has started to gain some ground over the dollar among other
currencies.
Amiwero
explained that even with the small gains the naira has been making
over the dollar , with one dollar exchanging for about N380 at the
parallel market , it is still difficult for any importer to purchase
FOREX at that rate , import goods with the money and be able to make
any tangible profit.
The
NMDLCA National President stated that it was an irony that government
expected the seaport concessionaires to pay it royalties which is
based on the level of throughput that they receive in their terminals
, but has not enunciated policies that would make it easy for cargoes
to come into the country, and thus facilitate payment of government
dues by the terminal operators..
He
stated that the ban placed on the importation of rice through the
border posts by the Federal Government late last year would have been
an advantage for the seaports, but pointed out that this has not been
so due to the very high tariff of 60 per cent imposed on the
importation of the product and for the fact that it is one of the 41
items on which importers cannot access FOREX through the official
market..
Amiwero
said that due to the problem of very low traffic at the seaports in
recent times , the concessionaires have been finding it very
difficult to survive , a development he stated had made most of them
to retrench their workforce and compromised their operations in so
many ways.
He
however said that the concessionaires current fate was due to the
fact they were not proactive when they were signing the concession
agreement , adding that they would have made government to introduce
some clauses into the agreement which would have protected them
against the problem of low traffic and government’s unfavourable
policies.
He
said due to the fact that the seaports have been dry for lack of
cargoes, it has been impossible for the Nigerian Ports Authority ,
Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency(NIMASA) and the
Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) , which government rely for revenue
to meet targets and remit money to the coffers of the State.
However,
he defines concession as temporary form of privatization explaining
that concession agreement is a series of contract that defines the
relationship between government and private sector regarding the
right to exploit land and facilities as well as the obligation to
construct port infrastructure and superstructure.
According
to him, the four elements of concession include infrastructure and
superstructure, , labour, traffic and tariff while the tool for
implementing privatization are Lease, ,Concession, BOT Schemes ,
Contract Out/ Management Contract and full privatization.
He
however said that there was a strong public interest in ensuring
that Nigerian ports operate efficiently and safely, that fair
services are provided so that ports can support and foster economic
development locally and internationally.
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