BAYO AKOMOLAFE 
In 2004, the Federal Government initiated a process of handing over the ports to private operators under a concession agreement.
This eventually became a reality in 2006 when Lagos, Tincan Island, Rivers, Delta and Calabar port terminals were handed over to more than 25 concessionaires.
However, 18 years after, local shipping operators are counting their losses as they are gradually being pruned out of port businesses.
Issues
Worried by the shortcoming, the Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion Of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, blamed Federal Government’s policy for the development.
Yusuf spoke at the maiden edition of Port News Summit with the theme: “Port reform and local content. Has Nigerias fared well?” He said that the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) Act enacted in 2005 had given foreign investors unlimited access to all sectors of the economy, saying that the policy needed to be urgently revisited, especially in the maritime sector to protect indigenous investors where they have capacity.
He stressed that with the volume of trade, which had generated enormous economic activities across the entire maritime ecosystem since 2019, no indigenous company had participated.
He said: “In 2019, the value of our merchandise trade was N36 trillion; 2020, N25.2 trillion; 2021, N39.7 trillion; 2022, N52. 9 trillion; 2023, N71.9 trillion.
There is shipping, clearing of the cargo, terminal activities and handling, cargo handling, warehousing, haulage, etc.”
Regrettably, he lamented that indigenous players in the sector had been progressively excluded from the major activities in the sector as they increasingly becoming spectators in the scheme of things, noting that foreigners were having field day.
According to Yusuf, “we cannot afford to be spectators in the sector. We have local capacity in clearing and forwarding, cargo handling, terminal operations, haulage, warehousing and many more.
The unfolding scenario is that most of these jobs are being taking away from indigenous players in the sector.”
Also, the General Secretary of the Association of Bonded Terminal Operators (ABTO), Haruna Omolajomo, complained that unless there is intervention from government, some of the bonded terminal facilities may finally go out of business as boxes are no longer being dropped there.
He explained that the port reforms had failed to translate into the growth of local content. In addition, he lamented that over N3.5 trillion investment in indigenous bonded terminals was at risk due to poor integration of local content into the Federal Government port concession of 2006.
Omolajomo explained: “To be candid, there is no indication or signs that our ports reforms have any positive relationship with the local content because no local content operation is accommodated in the reforms.
Even if yes, it is on paper, not in practice.” Omolajomo stressed that this was economic sabotage that made Nigerians not to fare well, saying that between 2001 and 2008,bonded terminals rescued the nation from congestion at the ports as More than 500,000 TEUS were handled by Creseada, Migfo, Duncan, AML, Port Express, Denca, Sifax, Michelle, Mid-Maritime, NACFA, SAVOL, Tha Shipping, ITC and Classic Marine to avoid diversion of vessels to Cotonou.
Outlook
On his part, a former Minister of Interior, Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho, said that in terms of local content, Nigeria had made significant progress as the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board
Local content development in the maritime sector has been slower to take off
NCDMB) was specifically established to promote local content development.
However, he said that despite these efforts, challenges persisted as the process of getting clearance for vessels and cargoes in the international trade and container sector could still be cumbersome, requiring multiple signatures from government agencies and other officials.
He added that the local content development in the maritime sector has been slower to take off. In his address, the Publisher/Editor-In-Chief, Portnews Newspaper.
Prince Wale Oni, said that after the Parliamentary Port Act of 1963 was signed into law, Nigeria never looked back as the Nigerian shipping industry flourished for four decades of the 50s to the early 90s under the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
He said that Nigeria’s National Shipping Line (NNSL) had about 30 vessels in its fleet that navigated the oceans around the world. They were all manned by Nigerian crews.
Some Nigerian shipping moguls like Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho, the late MKO Abiola, the late General Musa Shehu Yaradua and a few others had ocean going vessels that proudly flew Nigeria’s flag.
Port reforms
However, Oni said, today, that the glorious past had gone as Nigeria did not know how to do it again, noting that under President Olusegun Obasanjo port reforms, terminals and other infrastructures were handed over to private investors, majorly foreign shipping companies.
He said: “The first and most far reaching step these concessionaires took was to stop transfer of containers to the Nigerian owned bonded terminals and ICDs.
Dala ICD in Kano, a world class facility that is even linked to national railway with an impressive rail track, has not received a container, eighteen months after it was commissioned.
Nigerian operators have lost the plot, they are mere onlookers.” Solutions To empower the indigenous operators, Yusuf called for a displacement of foreign investors in the sector by the government in order to bring indigenous players into the mainstream of maritime sector activities.
Based on Nigerian local content policy, Omolajomo said that the Federal Government should urgently review Its contractual obligations with the concessionaires for the sake of the indigenous bonded terminals via 60:40 ratio respectively.
Last line
Unless there is intervention from the Federal Government, indigenous port operators would continue to be spectators where they have capacity and comparative advantage.
