Dr Kayode Farinto, acting President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), says the country’s ports had witnessed cargo volume decline in the past 24 months.
Farinto made this known in a television programme monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Lagos.
He was speaking on the Nigerian Ports Authority report in first half of the year which showed a total of 849,000 Twenty-foot equivalent unit of container rise on import received in Nigerian ports.
Farinto said that there was no increase in cargo import but, there was a decline.
According to Farinto, a lot of factors militate against cargo import in Nigeria such as bureaucracy, inconsistent policies and the continues slide of the naiira.
“The role of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) too cannot be over looked and this is because, they are encroaching on fiscal policy which affect importation of cargo.
“We have over 48 items on forex prohibition list and these people are still going through black market, bringing these items is a problem and even when brought in, issues of declaration comes in.
“That is why I say there is a decline and not increase. If its not a decline, I will say that 40 per cent of the containers are raw materials from all these multinationals and producing companies like Nigerian Breweries,” he said.
The ANLCA acting president said that to address this, government needed to look into the country’s maritime policy to have a clear cut way of harnessing the industry, which was under tapped.
“Before now, Nigeria had lost 45 per cent of its cargo to Lome, because, they have deep seaport.
”But with the coming of the Lekki Deep Seaport, we will witness berthing of large vessels in Nigeria,” he said.
On the issue of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and ensuring Nigeria does not become a dumping ground, he urged government to create a ministry to oversee the agreement.
According to him, having a ministry to oversee the agreement will ensure the preparedness of the country in the trade.
“We are signatory to this convention and whether we like it or not, African countries need to bring their goods to our country and we cannot say no.
“The UK has an anti-dumping policy in spite of the fact that they are a member of European Union and they used it to reject items they don’t want in their country, so we too need to do things right.
“AfCFTA is a lofty idea for African countries, a ministry to oversee issues in Nigeria will make us more prepared,” he said.
(NAN)
