IN a bid to reduce the slow procedures that characterise the process of Cargo clearance at the Nigerian Ports, the Nigerian Police and the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) are working towards organising a joint training for staff to boost efficiency in order to reduce the time spent in clearing cargo at the ports.
Speaking while receiving the Executive Secretary of NSC in his Office in Abuja, the Ag Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu revealed the readiness of the Force to partner with the Council in order to boost the efficiency of the ports.
Adamu said the partnership would enhance efficiency in the area of cargo clearance and evacuation from the ports, thereby reducing the cost of doing business in the ports across the country.
He also noted that his administration will not tolerate officers disrupting business processes at the port.
According to him, “the personnel of the Force and staff of the Council will undergo joint training that will boost their working relationship.”
“The role of the police in the port is the prevent crime, and if crime is committed, it is our role to investigate and prosecute offenders. Our presence at the port is to encourage business people to do their businesses with ease.
“Our presence will also make people who have business to transact at the port feel safe. We will not allow a situation where policemen will be part of the problems businessmen and women are facing at our ports because we are meant to be solutions and not to cause problems.”
He stated that “we will intensify specialised training for police personnel on special duties to understand their roles which would boost the better working relationship between the Force and the Council.”
On his part, the Executive Secretary of the Council, Hassan Bello said the collaboration will help reduce the cargo dwell time.
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Bello explained that, “Our ports have the unenviable reputation of being one of the ports with the longest cargo dwell time in the world. For example, while it takes 21 days to clear cargo in Nigeria, it takes three days in Lome, Togo; less than seven days in Cotonou, Benin Republic and only six hours in Singapore.
“Several efforts by the government to reduce cargo dwell time at our ports have not yielded any remarkable improvement. We experience excessive delays leading to high cost of cargo clearance due to accumulation of storage charges on the detained containers as well as unreceipted payments to free the detained containers.
“We experience congestion at the seaports due to non-release of containers which ought to be evacuated from the ports to the free flow of international trade and make room for incoming ones. Poor rating of our ports due to long cargo dwell time of the detained containers.
He said the “Unfriendly business envrionmnent is leading to diversion of Nigeria-bound cargo to neighbouring ports, such as Ports in Benin Republic, thereby boosting the international trade of the neighbouring countries and robbing Nigeria of much needed revenue from its international trade,” he stated.
Bello solicited the assistance of the IGP to making an order under Part XI of the Nigeria Police Regulations 1968, stopping the police from interfering with clearance processes at the ports because such interference causes delay. “Such delays lead to high costs and congetsions at the ports, thereby affecting the efficiency of the ports and distorting the free flow of international trade,” he noted.
“We also solicit the assistance of the IGP in the handling of cases of export fraud through the Interpol in order to get redress for Nigerian business men who are being defrauded by overseas trading partners frequently,” Bello stated.
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