Afrigather 
Tony Anakebe is the managing director of Gold-Hyperlink Funding Ltd, a Lagos-based clearing and forwarding firm. He advised Amaka Anagor-Ewuzie on this interview that there will likely be extra port-related job losses as a result of continued decline within the quantity of enterprise coming into the nation by way of the port.
He stated that points akin to naira devaluation, excessive trade charge, shortage of FX, and excessive import tariff that affected port enterprise negatively in 2022, is not going to go away anytime quickly resulting in the persevering with decline in quantity. Excerpt.
Port business in 2022
Naira devaluation affected nearly each side of enterprise in Nigeria and resulted in an increase in inflation to over 21 %. After recovering from the 2 years of the Covid-19 pandemic that led to the price of residing disaster, the managers of Nigeria’s economic system have been unable to handle the affect on the nation’s economic system.
The transport firms are starting to really feel the affect as quantity and freight proceed to drop, terminal operators are not receiving ample quantity and bonded warehouses are left with out containers to deal with.
Cargo throughput in Twenty-foot Equal Items (TEUs) decreased drastically in the reason for the yr and the variety of ships coming to Nigerian ports additionally declined.
The excessive trade charge made lots of importers lose their monies based mostly on the excessive trade charge from a little bit above N400/$ at the start of the yr to over N800/$ earlier than it dropped to above N700/$. This drastically decreased the buying energy of importers.
VIN valuation
With the introduction of VIN valuation, the duties paid on imported used and new automobiles hit the rooftop, affecting many automobile importers. Many that might not survive the affect left the enterprise whereas some nonetheless have their imported automobiles trapped within the port whereas these which might be nonetheless within the enterprise decreased the amount of automobiles they carry into the nation.
Learn additionally: Container imports into Nigerian ports grows 13.10% in 5 years
Presently, duties payable on imported automobiles come straight from Customs headquarters in Abuja that means that VIN-valuation transferred the ability to guage imported autos robotically from the instructions to a central level in Abuja, which is nice.
Nonetheless, the duties given to importer of automobiles elevated to the purpose that purchasing low cost tokunbo automobiles are starting to erode Nigerians.
Tariff on containers
By way of Customs tariff, Customs has pegged duties payable on 40-foot containers to be from N5 million and above whereas 20-foot containers now pay from N3 million and above relying on the time of products. Customs be sure that importers pay as much as that tariff earlier than their items may very well be authorised to exit.
Projection into 2023
Nigerians ought to brace up for extra hardship in 2023 as a result of companies within the port business are usually not discovering it straightforward. Extra Customs Licensed Brokers will likely be out of jobs this yr as a result of the amount of enterprise would proceed to cut back. Importers may also have to be cautious of fraudulent brokers that defraud importers of their cash and plenty of will likely be concerned in ‘flying containers’ from the port.
Not too long ago, Customs found how brokers fly containers from Tin-Can and importers have gotten their victims. Such brokers defraud importers of their hard-earned cash by thrilling them with low charges and unimaginable duties.
It’s only if Nigeria can enhance within the phrases of producing international trade that the port enterprise can enhance. The trade charge can not enhance anytime quickly. I even see the trade charge hitting N1000/$ earlier than the February basic elections and when it drops, it is going to come right down to round N800/$ or N850/$.
Port improvement
We surprise why Nigeria could have greater than three viable seaports clustered within the Lagos metropolis whereas different ports within the japanese a part of the nation proceed to wrestle. For this reason we have now congestion in Lagos. The federal government must decentralise the port enterprise in Nigeria by constructing ports within the hinterland and placing the present ports into most use.
The Lekki Port has been accomplished, and sooner the Lekki Port space will likely be congested just like the Apapa.
Checkpoints on port roads
Mounting checkpoints on roads resulting in the ports for the aim of rent-seeking by safety operatives on tankers and truck drivers are usually not good for the picture of the nation. Subsequently, the federal government must put an finish to such in 2023.
