Stakeholders from the maritime industry and government agencies met in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to identify best way to improve the efficiency and ease of doing business in the eastern ports.
The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) in conjunction with the Convention for Business Integrity (CBI), had assembled the stakeholders in a workshop to strategies on safe ways to ensure smooth business transaction within the eastern ports of Onne, Port Harcourt, Sapele, Warri, and Calabar.
During the workshop titled “Promoting Compliance to the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on Vessels Through Clearance,” the stakeholders noted that the challenges have caused misunderstanding between the private and government sector doing business at the seaports.
In his paper presentation, an Associate Director of MACN, Vivek Menon, said that the process in transforming the maritime operations around seaports has been an important journey since 2012.
Menon explained that MACN is a private sector initiative by shipping companies all over the world in response to rising cost of doing business as well as low rating in ease of doing business around the world.
According to him, “All countries have anti-corruption laws but they were not implemented. We agreed to work with our companies’ values and see how to meet the governments for their own change of attitude.”
He said that though the agreement was an international affair but having signed on, the work is local and “we found a methodology that works for us. It is evidence-based, not mere perceptions.”
He affirmed that the CBI’s revelation that Nigeria was one of the highest in cost of doing business (corruption) because of non-compliance with SOPs 10 years ago. “Now, Nigeria has shown huge progress. Other countries are now eager to work with Nigeria and are copying the model,” he said.
On his part, Director Programmes, CBI, Mr. Emmanuel Bosah, said that the essence of the workshop was to work with government and the private sector to improve efficiency and ease of doing business in eastern ports.
Bosah said: “We brought together private sector and government sector to discuss not just the challenges, which are very well known but to identify solutions that essentially grow from what we have seen happen in Lagos, with the Port Standard Task Team (PSTT) leading that assault.
“The previous engagement we had in Port Harcourt was to build the capacity of compliance officers to understand how to deliver their roles, how to comply with SOPs, how to ensure, most importantly, that everything they do is transparent, consistent and in line with the rules and regulations of the authorities and also in case where the private sector failed to meet its obligations in terms of compliance they do hold them accountable for that.
“Now, the purpose of this meeting is how best do we work collectively as part of that compliance response from the private sector and the government sector to now make sure that we understand what the compliance requirements are, that is; what are those SOPs.
“But in so doing, how best beyond that we do work with government to ensure that the gaps are understood, the challenges are addressed and everybody is equally responsible together to improve the ease of doing business in the ports in the east.”
Also speaking, National Coordinator, Presidential Port Standing Task Team (PSTT), Mr. Moses Fadipe, explained that the reform programme has a10-year duration and had to start in Lagos.
Fadipe emphasised the need for cooperation and collaboration of all relevant stakeholders to be able to jointly address the challenges militating against the ease of doing business at the eastern ports.
The Director, South South Zone of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Mr. Glory Onojedo, stated that “it is imperative that the ease of doing business should work in Port Harcourt ports, in fact in all the eastern ports and that’s why we really welcome this programme that is being organised today.”
He underscored the importance of collaboration of all stakeholders by saying that “security agencies should please, cooperate with the task team to ensure that when containers or goods are being removed from the ports or going out there are no further costs that are imposed on those containers or cargos.”
Stakeholders Move to Ensure Efficiency, Ease of Doing Business in Eastern Ports
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
Stakeholders from the maritime industry and government agencies met in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to identify best way to improve the efficiency and ease of doing business in the eastern ports.
The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) in conjunction with the Convention for Business Integrity (CBI), had assembled the stakeholders in a workshop to strategies on safe ways to ensure smooth business transaction within the eastern ports of Onne, Port Harcourt, Sapele, Warri, and Calabar.
During the workshop titled “Promoting Compliance to the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on Vessels Through Clearance,” the stakeholders noted that the challenges have caused misunderstanding between the private and government sector doing business at the seaports.
In his paper presentation, an Associate Director of MACN, Vivek Menon, said that the process in transforming the maritime operations around seaports has been an important journey since 2012.
Menon explained that MACN is a private sector initiative by shipping companies all over the world in response to rising cost of doing business as well as low rating in ease of doing business around the world.
According to him, “All countries have anti-corruption laws but they were not implemented. We agreed to work with our companies’ values and see how to meet the governments for their own change of attitude.”
He said that though the agreement was an international affair but having signed on, the work is local and “we found a methodology that works for us. It is evidence-based, not mere perceptions.”
He affirmed that the CBI’s revelation that Nigeria was one of the highest in cost of doing business (corruption) because of non-compliance with SOPs 10 years ago. “Now, Nigeria has shown huge progress. Other countries are now eager to work with Nigeria and are copying the model,” he said.
On his part, Director Programmes, CBI, Mr. Emmanuel Bosah, said that the essence of the workshop was to work with government and the private sector to improve efficiency and ease of doing business in eastern ports.
Bosah said: “We brought together private sector and government sector to discuss not just the challenges, which are very well known but to identify solutions that essentially grow from what we have seen happen in Lagos, with the Port Standard Task Team (PSTT) leading that assault.
“The previous engagement we had in Port Harcourt was to build the capacity of compliance officers to understand how to deliver their roles, how to comply with SOPs, how to ensure, most importantly, that everything they do is transparent, consistent and in line with the rules and regulations of the authorities and also in case where the private sector failed to meet its obligations in terms of compliance they do hold them accountable for that.
“Now, the purpose of this meeting is how best do we work collectively as part of that compliance response from the private sector and the government sector to now make sure that we understand what the compliance requirements are, that is; what are those SOPs.
“But in so doing, how best beyond that we do work with government to ensure that the gaps are understood, the challenges are addressed and everybody is equally responsible together to improve the ease of doing business in the ports in the east.”
Also speaking, National Coordinator, Presidential Port Standing Task Team (PSTT), Mr. Moses Fadipe, explained that the reform programme has a10-year duration and had to start in Lagos.
Fadipe emphasised the need for cooperation and collaboration of all relevant stakeholders to be able to jointly address the challenges militating against the ease of doing business at the eastern ports.
The Director, South South Zone of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Mr. Glory Onojedo, stated that “it is imperative that the ease of doing business should work in Port Harcourt ports, in fact in all the eastern ports and that’s why we really welcome this programme that is being organised today.”
He underscored the importance of collaboration of all stakeholders by saying that “security agencies should please, cooperate with the task team to ensure that when containers or goods are being removed from the ports or going out there are no further costs that are imposed on those containers or cargos.”
