For every ship that calls at any Nigerian port, five agencies of government are mandated to inspect the vessel before the cargoes onboard such vessels are discharged. However, many vessels have had their turn-around time delayed due to a lack of synergy among the inspecting agencies of government, writes TOLA ADENUBI.
For every ship that calls at any Nigerian ports, the Port Health, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) must inspect the vessel content before it is allowed to discharge. On arrival of the ship, the first agency to board is always the Port Health officials. After placing the quarantine flag, the Port Health officials receive the following documents from the vessel captain: maritime declaration of health; crew list/passenger list; ship sanitation control certificate or ship sanitation control exemption/extension certificate; medical chest certificate; Kroo boy list; stowaway list; crew vaccination list; provision/store list; narcotic list; medicine list and ship itinerary.
The Port Health must verify all these listed documents before a yellow flag is hoisted and a quarantine flag is lowered to indicate that the vessel is safe for boarding by the other four agencies of government. If not found safe for boarding, a double yellow flag or yellow-blue flag is hoisted by the Port Health officials.
After the Port Health is done with the vessel, the remaining four agencies of government, the NIS, NIMASA, NCS and NDLEA go onboard to inspect the vessel. For the NIS, documents like crew list; list of port of call during inward journey; list of disembarking passengers showing port of embarkation; list of passengers in transit showing port of embarkation and intended port of disembarkation; list of all persons onboard including stowaways; and seaman books must be seen and verified.
For NDLEA, the vessel captain submits documents like ports of call list; medical list of medicine in the hospital; narcotic list in the captain’s cabin; and container list. The NCS will get information on the content of all containers onboard the vessel even though the agency will still subject many of the containers to 100 per cent physical examination after offloading.
For NIMASA, the vessel captain must submit the following documents: voyage order; vessel manifest for payment of three per cent levy; certificate of quantity for wet cargoes; certificate of cargo transfer (if any); DPR permit (for petroleum product); anti-pollution documents/certificates; and declaration of maritime labour compliance part one, two and three.
Abysmall inspection regime
While the roles of each government agency are well spelt out in the Port Process Manual, many vessels have had to be delayed due to lack of presence of one or two agencies out of the inspecting five. Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune exclusively, a shipping agent who wouldn’t want his name in print explained that, “Over the years, the Federal Government has harped on the ease of doing business at the ports. However, do you know that we still offer officials of some government agencies a ‘transportation’ fee before they will agree to come onboard and perform their statutory role?
“These officials won’t move an inch if they don’t get transportation fee. If we don’t give them, it is not okay for us because we need our vessels to have a quick turn-around time at all ports visited. It is part of our job to ensure that anything that will constitute a form of delay for vessels that we manage is avoided if we can avoid it.
“These government officials won’t come onboard when it’s time for vessel inspection. While some will gladly come onboard, some others won’t. If those that are supposed to inspect the vessels have not done so, there is no way the vessel can achieve a quick turn-around time at the ports.
“The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is statutorily mandated to provide a bus that will convey officials of the joint inspection team to the ship side. However, you will be shocked that the bus will be there waiting, and some of the agencies won’t be around. Under the law, all of these agencies must inspect the ship because there is a certificate that is issued by each agency to the ship after inspection. Without the ship getting these certificates, the vessel cannot be discharged.
“So, most often times, we ask those not yet onboard while they have not inspected the vessel. What we hear is that a leader of a unit or a critical member of a unit that is supposed to be onboard is not yet within the port premises, or is probably caught up in traffic. Thus, we are asked to provide a transportation fee to hasten such a person’s movement towards the ports.
“This is now a common practice at Nigerian ports. It is gradually becoming more worrisome because some agencies that were not in the habit of demanding such payments now do because those collecting it are having a field day, unchecked. So, more government officials now demand a transportation fee before coming onboard our vessels to perform their statutory roles.
“This is a major reason why we still don’t have a joint vessel inspection regime at Nigerian ports. If you don’t give them the transportation fee, they will leave your vessel unattended to and this will increase the turn-around time of the vessel.
“Another issue we have with the joint inspection team is when agency officials pick things from the vessel cabins under the guise of inspection. For example, when some officials come into the captain cabin, picking stuff like cigarettes, beverages or drinks is a common practice at Nigerian ports. In most cases, the captains won’t stop them because that could lead to some other form of delay tactics by the inspecting team.”
When asked how much is given out as a transportation fee, the shipping agent revealed that a transportation fee ranges from N50,000 to N100,000 depending on the mood and number of absentees during a vessel inspection process.
Consequences
For every delay that occurs for vessels at berth, the shipping company slams additional demurrages on the cargoes onboard such vessel, thereby increasing the cost of doing business at Nigerian ports. In the words of the shipping agent, “For delays associated with vessel inspection, every time wasted is added as extra demurrages on the cargoes onboard.
“Shipping business deals with time. The quicker the vessel experiences turn-around time, the fewer amounts of charges that are placed on its cargoes. While we cannot control what happens during vessel inspection, we push the extra incurred cost occasioned by unexpected delays on the cargo owners. The vessel must recoup every kobo of time spent at any port and this will come in the form of demurrage payment by cargo owners to the shipping companies.”
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