Business
Customs Agent Seeks Ports Improvement
A licensed Customs agent, Nwangwu Emele, has stressed the need to upgrade the nation’s seaports to ensure that set goals are achieved.
Emele, who is also the Managing Director of a Port Harcourt-based freight forwarding firm, Emelco International Limited, gave the recipe for efficiency in the nation’s seaport on Tuesday during an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt.
He argued that all stakeholders must work towards making Nigerian ports friendly and efficient in service delivery, noting that if the 48 hours cargo regime is to be feasible, the operators should put all the necessary parameters in place. According to him, every effort should be geared to ensure trade facilitation in the nation’s seaports.
“We must observe the operational capability of all the stakeholders, particularly the principal ones such as the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), service providers, shipping companies, concessionaries, banks, transporters and the security agencies in the ports.
“Before a port is referred to as being friendly and efficient, it must adequately deliver importers’ goods in good time, charge fairly reasonable fees for its services, and avoid high rate of tariffs”.
He maintained that a situation where one cannot take delivery of one’s goods from the port in two weeks means that such a port was completely unfriendly and inefficient.
Emele argued that it was wrong to blame the management of Customs for the woes of the ports since the service only handle a quarter of what passes through it. He expressed delight that the management of NCS, under the leadership of Alhaji Inde Dikko Abdullahi, faithfully implemented the reforms and restructuring of Customs since he was appointed last year.
“The former long room, with its usual bad image for delay, is no more there. In fact, the name was sometime changed to Custom processing centre (CPC). It has been given a facelift by the Comptroller General of Customs who always ensures that only very few highly intelligent officers who do not need the persence of importers or agents before their work is done are posted there”.
“This was made possible through the various methods and systems, which includes the self-assessment by importer and the agents, e-payment and of course, the backing of ASYCUDA++. All these have worked like magic to eliminate human contact in order to reduce the delay in clearing goods in ports”, he said.
He noted that the major problem the ports are facing today in attaining quick delivery of goods are caused by other stakeholders, which federal government brought to ports. He said there must be checks and balances so as to know whether all the stakeholders are up to date in their responsibilities, so that, “we can get the maximum benefits from the ports”.
Business
Food Vendors, Others Relocate To New Site At PH Airport
The raging controversy between the Port Harcourt International Airport Management and restaurants/canteen operators and theirallies over relocation has been brought under control, as the operators have commenced relocation to their structures at the new site.
Recall that there had been serious feud over a directive by the Manager of the airport, Mr. Michael Area, for food vendors and their allies to relocate to the new site.
They insisted that the new site was too distant and hence, would negatively affect patronage from customers, with possible loss.
They further also insisted that it wouldcost them much money to put up another structure, given the economic situation in the country, since the airport management did not build any structure for them, apart from providing the empty land they have to also pay for.
The situation had led to flexing of muscles, which made the Airport Manager to order for sealing of all shops, resulting in scarcity of food, as airport users could not find a place to eat, apart from the only Genesis fast food spot available.
As at last Friday, The Tide observed that most of the food vendors had transferred their structures to the new place, and had started doing business there already.
Meanwhile, customers have started settling down at the new location as they were seen patronising shops for foods and drinks, in spite of the distance.
Few of the remaining structures at the old site, The Tide further gathered, will also be removed as quickly as possible, and the owners are making efforts to get funds for the job to be done.
One of them, Mrs Aka Love explained that she was going to relocate to the new place before the end of March.
Currently, business activities at the old site have come to null, as the place which was usually a beehive of food, drinks and relaxation, has completely winded down.
By: Corlins Walter
Business
MOWCA Strengthens Maritime Crime Prevention
Secretary General of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA), Dr. Paul Adalikwu, has stepped up interaction with the United States Government to lift restrictions placed on some member countries allegedly implicated in illicit shipping activities.
Adalikwu, who led a delegation from the MOWCA Secretariat to the US Embassy in Abidjan for a first leg of the strategic consultation aimed at promoting seamless participation of MOWCA countries in international trade within the global maritime space, reiterated the organisation’s commitment to the best ethical and lawful maritime practices.
Addressing the U.S Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire, H.E Mrs Jessica Davis Ba, the MOWCA SG stated the organisation’s interest in promoting the International Ship and Port facility Security (ISPS) code which aims at enhancing security of vessels and their ports of call.
He expressed the commitment of MOWCA in promoting environmentally friendly, safe and cost effective shipping without any encumbrance that may limit the economic potential of member countries.
Dr Adalikwu recalled that at the instance of the U.S. Department of State invitation, MOWCA participated in the 2023 Registry Information Sharing Compact (RISC) Conference in Larnaca, Cyprus, on February 28–March 1, 2023, and a virtual meeting held on June 6 2023, with Mrs Jennifer Chalmers, Officer in change of Counterproliferation Initiative.
He recalled The U.S. DOS willingness to support MOWCA’s effort for preventive maritime security through the establishment of the Center for Information and Communication (CINFOCOM) with the aim to ensure a maritime situational awareness domain within MOWCA’s member states’ waters.
He added that MOWCA under his watch is committed to training and retraining of maritime practitioners and experts to enhance the human capital capabilities of member states.
The CINFOCOM will help prevent transnational crimes committed at sea like sanctions evasion by North Korea and other state actors, who exploit poor enforcement due diligence by ship open registries to circumvent United Nations and U.S. trade restrictions.
By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos
Business
Nigeria’s Public Debt Hits N97.3trn – DMO
The Debt Management Office (DMO) has hinted that Nigeria’s public debt increased by 10.7 per cent from N87.87 trillion in the third quarter of last year, to N97.34 trillion as at December 31, 2023.
DMO, in an update data released last Friday, said the increase in the debt stock was largely due to new domestic borrowing by the Federal Government to part finance the deficit in the 2024 Appropriation Act and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral lenders.
The office noted that the N97.3 trillion public debt comprises of domestic debt of N59.12 trillion and external debt of N38.22 trillion. The sum of $3.5 billion was used to service external debt during the review period.
“Nigeria’s Public Debt Stock as at December 31, 2023 was N97.34trillion or $108.229 billion. This amount comprises the domestic and external debt stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), the 36 States Governments, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“There was an increase of N9.43 trillion over the comparative figure for September, 2023, which was largely due to new domestic borrowing by the FGN to part finance the deficit in the 2024 Appropriation Act and disbursements by multilateral and bilateral lenders.
“At N59.12 trillion, total domestic debt accounted for 61 percent of the total public debt stock, while external debt at N38.22 trillion accounted for the balance of 39 percent.
“Consistent with the debt management strategy, Nigeria’s external debt stock was skewed in favour of loans from multilateral (49.77 percent) and bilateral lenders (14.02 percent) or total of 63.79 percent which are mostly concessional and semi-concessional.
“Whilst the DMO continues to employ best practice in public debt management, the recent and on-going efforts of the fiscal authorities to shore up revenue will support debt sustainability”, DMO stated.
By: Corlins Walter
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