Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — The Nigeria project of the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network, MACN, in collaboration with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce have said that Nigeria losses over $7billion annually to port inefficiency and corruption.
The Network in its 2021 annual report issued yesterday said that illegal charges, rent seeking and corrupt port officials and circumstances of excessive delay to import and export processes were some of the administrative bottlenecks responsible for such huge losses.
According to report, “In economic terms, the private sector and the Nigerian government loses as high as N600billion annually as result of administrative bottlenecks and delays at the port and terminals in Nigeria.”
In the report, challenges of Port administration remain a major issue as operators continue to face lingering challenges that includes infrastructure gaps, regulatory inconsistencies, duplication of roles by Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, high rate of infractions by MDAs, cumbersome cargo clearing processes, multiple taxation and poor state of the roads.
Part of the report reads: “These challenges particularly cargo clearance processes and modal transportation, have created circumstances of excessive delays to import/export processes, red tape, rent seeking and corrupt demands, human and vehicular congestion in and around the ports and illegal charges leading to high of business operations.
“Estimates indicate that the economic cost of these inefficiencies to the Nigerian government and private sector as high as $7billion annually.
“Broken down, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce Industry, LCCI, further calculates these annual loses to amount to N600billion in Customs revenues, $10billion in non-oil export and some N2.5trillion in corporate revenues including a drop of 38-40 percent in industrial capacity.
Also speaking at Retooling the Maritime Sector for Economic Growth’ conference, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Mr. Emmanuel Jime, said that the Nigerian Port has been classified as the worst in the world due to traffic congestion, safety and security concerns and logistics shortcoming that have plagued the ports.
Similarly, the Chief Executive Officer of the Convention of Business Integrity, Mr. Soji Apampa, the convener of the Port Users Conference themed ‘Retooling the Maritime Sector for Stronger Economic Growth’ said the that the focus of the MACN Nigeria project is to use the collective action to strengthen good governance, reduce corruption and improve the investment climate in the Maritime sector.
Apampavsaid:”We achieve this by working with the industry to strengthen compliance with government regulation, stakeholder activism and public vigilance.”
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