Challenges of ease of doing business initiative - VP Osinbajo

BIOLA Seun |

Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s Vice-President and Chairman of the Presidential Environmental Business Enabling Council (PEBEC), has listed the excesses of Nigeria Customs Service and the intrusion of port police as some of the challenges facing the initiative to unbundle clearing process at the ports.

At a public forum in Lagos, Osinbajo said that despite these draw backs, efforts of the Federal government to ease the process of doing business at the ports are gaining momentum.

Mr John Oboh , who represented the Vice President, observed that some customs officers do not come to office on time for examination of cargoes.

He said, “On joint physical examination of goods at the ports, he pointed out that the problem has been with information that some customs officers do not come to office in time.

“For instance”, he said” where examination is supposed to be around 12noon, the exercise does not start till between 1 and 2pm.”

He also said there is no reason why the Police as part of the eight agencies at the ports should be stopping containers for examination.

Most of the participants blamed officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Police for embarking on measures that have derailed the order.
But beyond the Customs were other issues, including the state of the roads and the attendant congestion created by shipping companies who are yet to provide holding bays for empty containers.

Oboh identified the 24 hour service at the ports in which importers can at least pay customs duties, joint physical examination of goods at the ports in which nobody has to chase any agency personnel as parts of the gains of the order.

He also said that PEBEC had intervened in some cases to fasten the pace of work on the road rehabilitation as well as redesign the palletisation policy following inputs from stakeholders.

While acknowledging some challenges, he however appealed to stakeholders to be patient on the road reconstruction as it is most likely to be completed in the third quarter of the year as against the earlier June date promised.

According to him, the closure of Ijora bridge is coming at a better time considering the ongoing road reconstruction.

He disclosed that PEBEC had made intervention on the issue of road construction which attracted the Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote to the site, adding that there has been an improvement on the pace of work since his visit.

He pointed out that the reduction of 14 agencies in the ports to 8 was also part of the gains of introducing Ease of Doing Business.

However, Oboh agreed that there were challenges in carrying out the Presidential Order on Ease of Doing Business, identifying some customs operatives and the Police as not helping matters.

He criticised the Customs for incessant interception of goods cleared at the ports, saying this was not the best.

According to him, there is no reason why operatives of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) should be stopping containers on the way, particularly within few meters after the port gate for another round of checks.

Oboh who said he is a field person who monitors what goes on within the business environment alleged that some of the FOU officers collect N20,000 per truck after they had been cleared at the port.

Oboh said his office had intervened in some cases of molestation of importers who had cleared their goods at the ports by the Police.

Also speaking, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) on the occasion said it has not failed to ensure that the goals of Ease of Doing Business at the ports are achieved.

A top official of the agency, Mrs Adora Nwonu, of the Consumers Affairs Department, who represented the Executive Secretary, Mr Hassan Bello, on the occasion said the ports economic regulator has always been active in enforcing the order where it has to do with shipping services delivery between consumers and providers of shipping services.

Nwonu said that following this, the Council has recovered millions of Naira from shipping companies in favour of shippers who reported such cases to the Council.