‘Port Concessioning: Absence Of Regulator, Legal Framework Fueling High Clearance Cost’

Eighteen years after the administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, concessioned the nation’s seaports to private terminal operators, the national president, National Association of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero, on Monday, bemoaned the absence of Port economic regulator at the nation’s seaports and legal framework to support the concessioning.
Amiwero in a letter to President Bola Tinubu titled, ‘Privatising Nigeria Ports Without Legal Framework and Economic Regulator since 2005 till date,’ and a copy made available to LEADERSHIP, urged the government to set up a committee of experts to accommodate the shortfall inherent in the port privatisation system.

According to Amiwero, lack of legal framework has created hindrance and impediment in the port system that attracted high clearance cost, bottleneck, inconsistency and charges not tied to service collected by various organisations.
He stated further that creating a legal framework and economic regulator will reduce the cost of doing business, lengthy and cumbersome procedures as well as duplication of processes.
Amiwero argued that creating a legal framework and Port Economic Regulator would attract cargo from neighbouring Ports and Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to Nigerian seaports.
“To address impediment in the port system which attract high clearance cost, bottleneck, inconsistency and charges not tied to service collected by various organisation, the lengthy and cumbersome process excludes Nigerian Port as a load centre, preferred Port or transshipment Hub due to the complexities inherent in our Port system, which makes our port the most expensive in the globe.”

“The federal government should constitute a committee of experts to review the shortfall inherent in the Port system in order to reduce the cost of doing business, lengthy and cumbersome procedure and duplication of process and charges not tied to service, so as to attract back our cargo from neighbouring ports and foreign direct investment.

“We are more concerned about the process of privatising Nigerian Ports without legal framework and economic Regulator, which has constituted hindrance, that resulted to gridlock on our roads, no holding bays, no trailer parks, no Government warehouses in the ports, no regulator to check the private monopoly of the terminal operators, these components where excluded from the Port privatisation process,” the NCMDLCA boss stated.

Amiwero further stated that after the port concessioning, trucks were pushed to the port access road as holding bays were concessioned out to terminal operators.

“The Holding Bays that existed before 2005 within and around the Ports, was ceded out as land space to Terminal Operators, without providing alternatives, all the spaces used for various activity to enhance port activities, was ceded to Terminal Operators, forcing the Trucks, lorries to use the available Port access road to hold empty containers and wait as holding bay, awaiting access to the Port to load clients consignment.

“There are no government warehouses to place government cargoes, no trailer parks, no economic regulator, no holding bay, duplication of charges and charges not tied to service is prevalent in our Port System,” he stated.