The Federal Government has mandated all the agencies driving port operations, including the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to commence 24 hours service, seven days a week at the nation’s ports, Business Day Online reports.
Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, minister of finance, who disclosed this at this year’s Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja , said that in line with the port reform process, the new strategy, to commence in the coming months, was aimed at reducing the cost of doing business in the ports.
Okonjo-Iweala said Customs and all other operators that now work from 9am to 5pm, would start working round the clock, so that Nigerian ports could operate like ports in other parts of the world.
The objective, she said, was to reduce the time spent on clearing goods from months, to 21 days, and finally to 48 hours, so that the ports would become user-friendly and efficient, with faster turnaround time.
“Our target is to ensure 48-hour cargo clearance in Nigeria , but we will start with three weeks cargo clearance in the short term, to enable us achieve 48-hours clearance in the long run. We can achieve this, if operators and agencies involved in cargo clearance operate on 24-hour basis. We are giving them within the next three months to organise themselves, so that implementation will take place”, she said.
To solve the problem of empty containers, the minister disclosed that government would come up with a container management strategy, to ensure effective disposal and usage.
She continued: “We are going to sit down with all stakeholders, including concessionaires, ship owners and ports users, to develop a strategy to handle empty containers, or deploy them to other uses. We are going to commence action to see it implemented, because we have heard many complaints from stakeholders, on how it affects port efficiency”.
Business Day findings are that the Federal Government has set up an independent task force from the private sector, which includes the presidential monitoring and evaluation committee, to rigorously monitor policy implementation, to ensure compliance.
It would be recalled that Bolanle Onagoruwa, director- general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) said recently in Lagos , that it was necessary to ensure that Inland Container Depots (ICDs) commenced effective operations, by making terminal operators move some of their containers to bonded terminals, so that people could clear their goods promptly, without having to visit the ports. This, she said, would help to fasten the clearing procedure and reduce port congestion.
Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, minister of finance, who disclosed this at this year’s Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja , said that in line with the port reform process, the new strategy, to commence in the coming months, was aimed at reducing the cost of doing business in the ports.
Okonjo-Iweala said Customs and all other operators that now work from 9am to 5pm, would start working round the clock, so that Nigerian ports could operate like ports in other parts of the world.
The objective, she said, was to reduce the time spent on clearing goods from months, to 21 days, and finally to 48 hours, so that the ports would become user-friendly and efficient, with faster turnaround time.
“Our target is to ensure 48-hour cargo clearance in Nigeria , but we will start with three weeks cargo clearance in the short term, to enable us achieve 48-hours clearance in the long run. We can achieve this, if operators and agencies involved in cargo clearance operate on 24-hour basis. We are giving them within the next three months to organise themselves, so that implementation will take place”, she said.
To solve the problem of empty containers, the minister disclosed that government would come up with a container management strategy, to ensure effective disposal and usage.
She continued: “We are going to sit down with all stakeholders, including concessionaires, ship owners and ports users, to develop a strategy to handle empty containers, or deploy them to other uses. We are going to commence action to see it implemented, because we have heard many complaints from stakeholders, on how it affects port efficiency”.
Business Day findings are that the Federal Government has set up an independent task force from the private sector, which includes the presidential monitoring and evaluation committee, to rigorously monitor policy implementation, to ensure compliance.
It would be recalled that Bolanle Onagoruwa, director- general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) said recently in Lagos , that it was necessary to ensure that Inland Container Depots (ICDs) commenced effective operations, by making terminal operators move some of their containers to bonded terminals, so that people could clear their goods promptly, without having to visit the ports. This, she said, would help to fasten the clearing procedure and reduce port congestion.