By Ignatius Chukwu
Measures have been put in place and structures activated to push the transformation scheme of eastern ports.
The challenges have also been listed and solutions created by stakeholders who brainstormed at the Swiss Spirit Hotel on Saro Wiwa Avenue in the Garden City Thursday, May 11, 2023.
Listing the challenges and solutions, Emmanuel Bosah, moderator of the one-day strategy meeting involving all regulatory agencies, agents, shippers, etc, said the corridor of the ports is problematic.
He said however that the biggest challenge they face is non-compliance; whether it is corruption, inefficiency that leads to high cost, infrastructural challenges, whatever the case, it is multifaceted.
Bosah, the Director of Programmes of the Convention of Business Integrity (CBI), said the team is in Port Harcourt not to list the challenges but to find how to solve them by asking questions such as: who are the stakeholders to solve them, and what more should be done by the FG to solve them?
“We came here with our objective, to unify the private and public sectors. We have achieved that. One thing we realise is that the voices in the room are not totally representative of the actors in the industry in the region.
“That is where the press would help to push the narrative. For outcome, it has been stated. We need to create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the private sector because the government sector SOP is already there and is in use and is transparent. The private sector needs to create their own SOPs around shipping and cost, and make sure everybody understands that. That is a starting point.”
He said the objective is to work with the government and private sectors and identify how to achieve Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) in eastern ports (Warri, Calabar, Port Harcourt Area One, Onne, Bonny, etc) and the terminals within this region. “We brought together private and government sectors to discuss not just the challenges but to identify new solutions that will grow to be what we see in Lagos, with the Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) leading that effort.”
A two-day workshop had been organized to boost SOP compliance in the eastern ports. The specialised and fully loaded training is being anchored by the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) and the CBI in partnership with the Technical Unit on Government and Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC).
Explaining the difference between that workshop and the present strategy meeting, Bosah said: “The previous engagement was to build the capacity of compliance officers to understand how to deliver their role, how to comply and how to ensure that everything they do is transparent, consistent, and in line with rules and regulations of the authorities. And, in the case a private sector operator tends to meet, they be held accountable for that.
“The point of this one is how best, as part of that compliance response, to work collectively (govt and private) to now make sure we understand what the requirements were: transparent, are published, that anybody can get access to them through the SOPs developed by Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN). In so doing, how well is it done, how do we ensure that the gaps are understood and the challenges are addressed and everybody is equally responsible together to really improve efficiency and EoDB in the ports in the east.”
He said they now understand that where that is not done, an aggrieved person channels their complaints through the right mechanisms to ensure that the government does its own part, where government fails to do its own part, this convening now becomes responsible through their associations for failing to respond, through the mechanism it has established via their own SOPs.
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