Stakeholders in the Maritine Industry have urged the federal government to enforce the recent step taken by the Presidential task force on port reforms by sacking eight agencies from the ports as a way of easing the clustered cargo clearing process.

Some of the stakeholders who applauded the move said it was commendable and asked the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Taskforce to back the move with action, because such pronouncements by government officials in the past ended where it was said, “saying  it is one thing to make such a pronouncement but another thing to enforce it. The onus is on Okonjo Iweala and the Taskforce to ensure the directive is carried out”.

They  posited that the Minister should not be intimidated by the dubious moves of miscreants in the industry who are bent on subverting any effort to sanitise the port.

Speaking to The Tide in Port Harcourt on Friday, an executive member of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Linus Ezeani, lauded the decision of government to sack the affected agencies, blaming them for creating bottlenecks in the clearing procedure.

He recalled that customs was formally carrying out the functions of most of these agencies through specialised arms and personnel.

Barrister Kemzi Ikezam, a Maritine Lawyer told The Tide that the directive meets the expectation of maritime lawyers and all other Maritime stakeholders, importers and trade facilitators, noting that the law that facilitates port operations states that the Nigerian police, Immigration, Port Health and Nigerian customs should be in the ports and that other agencies should be invited by the Nigerian Customs during examination when necessary.

The Minister according to him, has permitted two other bodies NIMASA and NPA to be there and of course during the promulgation of the Port  Act to sanitise the Ports, NPA as the Landlord was seen to have been granted permission to be there at the ports.

He said NIMASA’s operation is welcomed because the agency collects a certain percentage of FOB of the goods discharged at the ports, as he also applauded the banning of Federal Operation Units (FOU) from the port highways. The FOU, he said, has constituted a very big nuisance in the trade facilitation chain in the port industry and to get them out of the roads of the borders is more than a welcome development.

The agencies authorised to operate in the ports from now include, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Ports Authoriy (NPA), Nigerian Customs Service, Immigrations, Police and Port Health.