Hardly had the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) announced its plans for implementation of a Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) regime than it became apparent to all that an epic battle (of sorts never witnessed in the industry before) was upon us. Virtually all ports stakeholders were at daggers drawn with the NPA over this CTN issue. I must confess (at the risk of being labelled warmonger) that I eagerly looked forward to the showdown. What, with ports users perpetually grumbling about the various illegal charges being collected at Nigerian Ports, (for no value whatsoever added) the time had come. Enough was enough. Finally it was going down.
By mid January, I had written what I believed was my 6 page precursor to full fledged war time reporting. It was titled “The Audacity of Nope”. Fast forward to April 2010 however, the CTN battle has been completely averted. All the various groups who had been opposed to its implementation are now locked in the sweet embrace of the NPA while rendition after rendition of “CTN, How Wonderful Thou Art” are offered daily by both parties on the pages of newspapers.
But how could something so wonderful have caused so much rouse? In its early days, there was much talk about how the CTN would make Nigerian ports; which are said to be among the most expensive in the world even more costly. A cross section of stakeholders for instance initially maintained that the levies which the CTN attached to all inbound and outgoing cargo would increase costs, lead to smuggling and thus diversion of much employment from many within their ranks. There were also concerns that the CTN would add another level of bureaucracy to a cargo clearing process which in its current state already contributes to the problem of ports congestion. Yet again, how Antaser Afrique (NPA’s sole representative for the CTN implementation) emerged was also called to question. Where in the world was due process?
In this entire melee, the NPA felt it necessary to address just one of the concerns and it appears that this has been enough. The authority explained that contrary to apprehensions, the CTN added no extra charges which were not already being paid by importers. NPA’s General Manager Public Affairs is reported as having declared that:
…everything is paid for right from the port of origin but shipping agents have over the years been collecting the monies and never remitted them.
So reassured by the above explanation, most of the hitherto nay Sayers have abandoned their agitation. In fact some groups are reportedly at war with the recalcitrant few who are yet to come on board. My 6 pages are forever condemned to some small sectors of my computer’s hard disk space. I lick my wounds. My grief is however heightened by the fact that we may have lost the best opportunity yet to present it self for tackling the issue of multiplicity of illegal charges at Nigerian ports. Other questions such as the true relationship of the CTN with the International Ships and Ports Security (ISPS) Code and also whether it is really the brief of the NPA to implement a cargo tracking system in the light of the functions of other government agencies would all have to wait. For now CTN has the floor.
Victor Onyegbado is a Lawyer and a Maritime Industry Analyst.
He is the Sub-Editor of Marine and Petroleum Nigeria Magazine.
