Since 2020, there has been a decline in the number of incidents reported by ship captains calling on Nigerian ports, suggesting that transactions for Ship Captains using Nigerian Ports has become more transparent, predictable, and consistent.
The maritime sector is important to Nigeria’s economic survival. That notwithstanding, challenges to ports administration have created circumstances of excessive delays to import/export processes, red tape, human and vehicular congestion in and around the ports, and illegal charges leading to high costs of business operations.
Given the economic costs of these challenges and the losses that come with the attendant inefficiencies, estimated at a whopping $7 billion annually, the Nigerian government through the Nigeria Shippers’ Council (NSC), the Technical Unit on Government and Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), in collaboration with the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has since 2012 embarked on a process of reforms to address the challenges in the maritime sector.
The collaboration led to the establishment of the Port Service Support Portal (PSSP) housed by the NSC and the Project Steering Committee (PSC). The PSC and PSSP have been at the forefront of the reforms in the Nigerian maritime sector for improved efficiency, better service delivery and better business environment. The efforts of the PSC have resulted in the publication of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Ports Agencies and recently publication of the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM). The NSC is officially charged with the responsibility of leading its implementation and enforcement. Both documents have far reaching implications for operations in Nigerian Ports and Terminals.
While the PSSP housed and managed by the NSC is a complaints management and Port service support solution aimed at addressing challenges of business-to-business transactions across Nigeria’s Ports, enabling stakeholders to submit and track the status of their complaints, enquiries and port service requests in real-time, the SOPs were intended to improve transparency and accountability in Nigerian Ports, while the NPPM is focused on reducing bureaucratic roadblocks and improving operational efficiency in the sector.
Both documents and the PSSP Portal have far reaching implications for operations in Nigerian Ports and Terminals if the country is to address the estimated annual losses of some N600 billion in customs revenues, $10 billion in non-oil exports and N2.5 trillion in corporate revenues, including the drop of 38-40% in industrial capacity utilization according to the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).
The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) on its part set up a Help Desk for its members as well as a Mobile App SOP Toolkit and a User Experience Diary for Clearing Agents. From June 2020 to date, the Help Desk has recorded over 271 Shipping Arrival Notifications, mostly sent by Shipping Companies, provided feedback to 36 issues raised and worked with the NSC to resolve 33 of these issues within a 1 -8 hour timeframe. Overall, from 2011 to 2021, a total of 1130 incidents have been reported by Ship captains calling on Nigerian ports. Since 2020, there has been a decline in the number of reported incidents from a high of 266 incidents in 2019 to 121 in 2020 and about 36 (at the time of writing) in 2021. The implication of this is that transactions for Ship Captains using Nigerian Ports has become more transparent, predictable, and consistent.
Equally, the improvements in transparency, predictability, consistency of operations at the ports for Ship Captains has led to the transformation of the Bonny Working Group formed by MACN Members to a general-purpose Tanker Working Group that engages with issues arising from ports around the world generally. The import of this development has been that the membership of MACN, consisting of 156 shipping companies responsible for 50% of global cargo-carrying capacity and 70-80% of global containerized cargo, is beginning to change its largely negative perception of the Nigerian business environment and the effects of corruption on the sector’s viability. Over the long term, these incremental changes, if sustained, will contribute towards improving Nigeria’s position on the Ease of Doing Business rankings as well as Corruption Perceptions Index in a fundamental way that can drive investment and development in the country’s maritime sector.
MACN HELPDESK ACTIVITY REPORT SUMMARY AS AT 13TH OCTOBER 2021
Total Pre-Arrival Notifications to Date: 271+
Total Cases/Complaints to Date: 36
Total Valid Cases/Complaints: 35
Total Cases/Complaints Resolved: 33
Total Cases/Complaints Closed: 33
Average Duration for Resolved Cases: 24hrs
Analysis of Arrival Calls
Arrival Frequency by Shipping Company
Shipping CompanyNo. Of Notification
Berhard Schulte Shipmanagement (HK) Ltd. Partnership2
BW Maritime12
Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd1
Frontline Ltd.1
Hafnia Tankers1
Intership Navigation Co. Ltd.1
Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Skipsrederi AS1
MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A.72
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line)1
OSM Maritime Group3
Pacific Basin Shipping HK Ltd60
Ridgebury Management LLC4
Scorpio Tankers Inc.27
Seaspan Corporation5
Synergy Marine (Europe) A/S1
Taylor Maritime (HK) Limited1
Teekay Corporation37
Thome Singapore Holdings PTE. LTD.1
V Ships25
Wilhelmsen Ships Services AS1
Non-MACN Members14