We run Safe, Modern and Most Efficient Terminal in Africa – Russo

Interview by: Funso Olojo   |

The Managing Director of Grimaldi Agency Nigeria, owners of Port and Terminal Multi Services Limited (PTML) Ascanio Russo, in an exclusive interview with nigeriamaritime360.com in his office, cleared the air on the controversial access card, the auto policy and some other related matters.

Q: Some Freight forwarders through the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) accused the terminal of extortion through the issuance of access card for which they have threatened a showdown with the terminal. What is your reaction to the controversy?

A:  For the first time registration, we collect N10, 000 and we issue seven cards and it is paid once at the point of your registration. The duration is one year and it is aligned with the duration of the license issued by Customs. For you to operate in the port, you have to be a Customs Licensed Agent.  To operate in the port, you have to register with Customs. So what we are saying is that to register with us, you have to register with Customs and you know that Customs license lasts for one year. Our card is linked to the Custom license. When your Customs license expires, then your access card expires.  When you come here, you just show your renewed Customs license, then automatically we renew your access card without any charge, except you newly come to our terminal. In the past, we collected less than 10,000, about N5, 000 for the issuance of this card, we were then issuing up to 10 cards. Because it is a corporate registration, it is per agency. We give you seven cards to give to your seven staff. Once you register once, that is forever, you don’t register again. The cost of issuing this card is not up to the cost of producing one card. Each card costs N10, 000 to produce because these are biometric cards , there is a chip inside, they are super expensive. We are not even making any money out of it.  For us, it is a way to filter genuine applications because we don’t want just anybody to come and say they want to register.

The registration process is very complex because when you come here, we just collect your customs license, we ask you to provide your address and the CAC registration, bank reference. We also affirm these document, we go to the CAC office in Abuja to verify your claims and to find out if the company exists. We check each of the documents you submit. We go to your bank to check if the bank details are genuine, we go to the address you provide to know if it exists. You can now imagine how complex the process is. We just want to make sure we are dealing with companies which exist and not fake ones. It is a very expensive process.

Then we give you the card which is a biometric card. There is a chip inside where we have registered your finger prints and you use this card to access our facility which is ISPS Code compliant and you know we are all over the place. The ISPS Code is an international regulation on safety and access control which is also here in Nigeria. We do not only control access to the port, we also know who is coming because we have track record of all the people who have interacted with us.

Q:  What is the importance of this?

A:  At the touch of a button, I can tell you who is in our facility at a particular point in time because we have records of all our customers using our facility. This is very important in case of an emergency. For instance, if there is a case of, God forbid, terrorist attack, you need to know who are inside your facility. Also, it provides information to government on who is entering your facility. In addition, the access card also facilitates ease of doing business at the port. You can use it to transact business in our facility.  If you want to go for release of your cargo in other terminals, usually, they will ask you for all sort of document such as ID card, your company registration, letter of authority and other documents. But in our facility, the card can do all of these. You just bring your card which is biometric with your finger prints. We know it is for you and you cannot use other person own, so you use the card for all your transactions in our facility. We have been running this system for over five years and nobody is complaining. Genuine Customs agents appreciate that the card facilitates the ease of doing business at our terminal.

Last year, the Vice President issued an Executive Order on the ease of doing business at the port and one of the points is that touts should not be allowed inside the port and we are complying with this order. With this access card, we can differentiate touts from the genuine agents. If you do not have form C30, you do not have business at the port, this is the bottom line and we have been complying on the ease of doing business order from the Vice President. No tout comes to our facility and we have been complying with the ISPC code which is internationally recognized and also practised in Nigeria and we have been offering solutions which facilitate doing business with us.

So all the controversy surrounding the issuance of the access card, for me, is very insignificant, it is a distraction because those who are directly involved, genuine agents are not complaining. We don’t want anybody to just come and dump fake document because it’s free and we waste our time trying to process fake document. So if you are a serious and genuine agent wishing to transact business with us, just pay the token N10,000 and enjoy our world class services.

Q: You must be making some millions from the cards?

A:  It is ridiculous what the people are saying that that we are making millions. How many agents renew their license each year?, 20 or 30, translating to  N200,000, N300,000. What am I going to do with that kind of money? Such amount is nothing for a big organization like ours.  The access card is a way to deter fake agents from entering our facility and dump fake document. The N 10,000 being charged is not even up to the cost of producing one smart card. One smart card itself is N10, 000

Q: Does your company have institutional backing, that is, is NPA, which is the landlord, aware of this system?

A: We have been running this system for over five years, so the NPA is aware .The Customs is aware. As a matter of fact, the Customs hierarchy in Abuja supports and encourages this because they do not want touts to invade the port. They want genuine agents to come to the port which the access card seeks to achieve. Customs is in support, all the relevant organs of government are in support so, it is not an illegal system as some people may want the public to believe. Honestly, we have obligation to ensure that our facility is run according to the international best practices which is to control its access for safety reason.

Q: But it seems it’s only PTML that has this system in place where the access is monetized?

A:  I can’t speak for other terminals but ours is very peculiar. Unlike other terminals, we manage our own gate while others have the NPA security personnel. I don’t know what other terminals are doing, but what we are doing is what we are supposed to do and it is in line with international best practices; because of the controlled access, the authority has confidence that our facility is very secured.  For any transaction in our facility, we have all the data of the agents involved in case any of such transactions is subject to police or Customs investigation. We even provide the address of the agent who does the transaction.  That is how secured our facility is. We cannot afford to do less because we are the largest RORO terminal in West Africa. We have the highest influx of people in the terminal because of this Tokunbo business; we can’t afford to give unrestricted access to all manner of people. We need to have this high standard. Customs was even happy for the arrangement because they are overwhelmed by the numbers of people coming for a single entry. However, as a law abiding corporate citizen, if the authority feels differently about the system and asks us to stop, of course, we shall obey; but for me, it is a common sense and everybody can appreciate how secured our terminal is. We are probably the most secured terminal in West Africa and we are proud of what we are doing.

To what extent has the Federal Government auto policy affected your operations?

It has affected us very badly. In the last three years, the volume of cargo coming to Nigeria has collapsed.  However, it is not only our terminal that has lost money.

Can you put a figure on how much you have lost, just hazard a guess.

No, I can’t put a figure. This is not only peculiar with us. You know I have been living in this country for over 20 years and hope to live another 20 to 30 years. So I am not looking at short term gains but long term because I know if the country is doing well, my company will do well as well. I am concerned because as a result of the high level of duties introduced in 2015, the level of car imports discharged in the neighbouring ports has increased and this has affected the revenue of government. Everybody is going to lose because revenue is not going to be collected on those vehicles discharged at the neighbouring ports. Customs is going to lose, NIMASA is going to lose, NPA is going to lose, and terminal operators like us are going to lose. Customs agents are going to lose and everybody who are involved in this tokunbo business are going to lose.

Government is estimated to lose N300billion to smuggling annually due to this problem.

Everybody knows the prices of vehicles have gone up. What is more painful is that these cars are still coming to Lagos ports. Because of this policy, good cars such as 2015, 2016 , 2017 models are not discharged at the Lagos ports any more. Rather, what we have are accident cars while all the good cars are discharged at Cotonou ports before they are smuggled into the country.

This is a loss of revenue to government, loss of revenue to us as terminal operators and loss of revenue to all Nigerians who have to pay more to buy good vehicles.

Q: Are you then insinuating that the auto policy has failed?

A: No, am not saying that. I support the policy to grow the local car manufacturing industry but what I am saying is that we should look at the achievement of the policy so far. What has it achieved since it began? The policy was introduced late 2013, that is about five years ago, then the question we should ask ourselves is that has car manufacturing really taken off in Nigeria? How many Nigerians are driving these made in Nigeria cars? Who can afford these cars?  This is the problem. It is not only manufacturing these cars which is a big problem but who can afford to buy them. Even if you assemble these cars in Nigeria, those cars will be sold between N8m to N10m, how many Nigerians can afford that amount?

The reality is that Nigerians still need Tokunbo cars because they still need to move around and you can’t expect those who cannot afford these cars to buy them.

So in my personal views, government should consider the exigency of Nigeria population and the right of people to buy cars that are not expensive to move around. We are not talking about luxury cars but cars of say 10 years old which people can use to move around. On the other hands, government can grow the local industry which must be with some incentives but shutting the doors against Tokunbo is not the best thing because those cars are still coming from Cotonou.

Government should allow the importation of Tokunbo cars for those who cannot afford to buy new cars while on the other hand, can pursue its auto policy for those who can afford to buy new cars.

The two categories of cars are not in competition. This local auto industry will take many years to firm up and within those years, those who cannot afford the new ones would be allowed to buy tokunbo until such a time when the new cars made in Nigeria become affordable through government incentives and support to the local manufacturers.

Q: In view of the harsh business climate, how do you meet your financial obligation to the NPA?

A; We have been in this business for long and our goal is not short time. We are here for a long time. We are here to invest and we believe that the services we offer and the investments we have made show that we are a serious people. We are not looking for a short term returns. We did not come to Nigeria yesterday and we are not leaving tomorrow, we are here forever because we believe in this country and we know the times are challenging and we have gone through a lot but we are a big company with a big shoulder to absorb the shock.

We know some days, this country will succeed and grow and we shall succeed and grow together. That is why we have been able to withstand these hard times.  The last two to three years have been very hard for everybody in this country. In addition to these crises, we are also affected by these policies. But we are committed to this country and we have made big investments , so we are not going to leave and we are not going to short change anybody. We have not defaulted in our financial obligations to the government and by the grace of God, we are not going to default.

Q:  Are you thinking of changing your business module to accommodate these unforeseen circumstances?

We want to grow because we see this country growing, we want to grow, that is why we have developed our off dock terminal in Mile two for the last 10 years, even when there was no congestion. People are talking about moving cargo by barge but we have been moving cargo by barge for the past ten years. That means we always look for solution before the problem comes, that is why our terminal is not affected by congestion. We want to expand because we know the volume of business is going to grow. We have confidence in the economy. That is why we want to expand by acquiring more lands so we can receive more cargo.

Q: What do you think is wrong with the Nigerian maritime industry?

A: For me , the most critical thing is the infrastructural decay in and around the port, especially the bad road which has posed serious problems for us. Government must urgently intervene before it gets out of hand.

Q: How can government grow the industry?

A: There must be full automation of port operations in other to ease cargo release. I know government has tried towards this end. Customs, NPA, NIMASA have all taken bold steps towards achieving full automation of their operations. More efforts should be put to achieving this in order to eliminate human traffic at the port and move into 21^st century port operations which are technologically driven. In most of the ports in other countries, you don’t find people milling around the ports. Things are done electronically, that is what we are trying to achieve in out terminal.

We are about the only terminal where you can transact your business electronically, from the comfort of your office.

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