Abdullazeez Babatunde Mukaila

What we need from NPERA, first and foremost, is clarity. Clarity about transparency, promotion of efficiency in the value chain and accountability in the Nigerian port system.

Transparency means having clarity about who does what and what the implications of non-performance are. Most importantly, there needs to be a proper mechanism for the resolution of disputes. This has been at the lowest ebb, and no one has been responsive or accountable as a go-to institution when disputes arise.

A major part of the disputes that arise from the port concerns charges and getting paid for non-performance. So, when I talk about accountability and clarity, I am talking about charges and performance.

The most important protection any shipper expects from NPERA is clarity around charges and performance.

Customs administration globally and freight forwarding are international and rule based. I commend the present leadership of the Nigeria Customs Service for trying to match international best practices.

There is no problem with Nigerian businesses and the average shipper being accountable from a documentation standpoint. The onus is on practitioners to advocate, while the average shipper also needs to understand that international trade is accountable and rule-based.

Post Clearance Audit gives Customs an opportunity to focus its personnel and machinery on high risk cargo while allowing compliant shippers to exit within the required time and remain accountable after clearance.

What I expect to see is more advocacy and sensitisation by the Nigeria Customs Service. Customs needs to take this message to every nook and cranny of the country. They need to go into the marketplace, not just hold meetings in five star hotels.

Nigeria is import dependent, and a significant proportion of the shipping community operates from the markets. If Customs properly sensitises these market-based shippers on compliance requirements, it can focus its resources on high-risk cargo while compliant shippers experience easier and faster clearance.

The Single Window is supposed to create a seamless process where information is created and shared among the relevant government agencies. Progress is being made gradually, but manual processes and duplication are still very much present.

One of the major problems is the rivalry and conflicting mandates among government regulatory agencies.

For instance, you can have agencies such as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) both regulating products such as paint, diapers and table salt. There needs to be a clear separation of boundaries and a unitary command around the regulation of each product.

There are also instances where the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and other agencies have regulatory interests around certain controlled products. These overlapping mandates need to be clearly defined.

When I was the National Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), we identified more than 40 products where there were conflicting mandates. There have been efforts to resolve these issues by getting agencies with overlapping regulatory responsibilities to share responsibilities, but the challenges persist.

The Ministry of Trade needs to do more because these overlapping mandates continue to hamper trade. The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council has done what it can, but the problem has not been completely resolved.

The Customs Service, as the lead agency in the clearance process, can itself be hampered by these conflicting mandates.

The Single Window needs sufficient authority to bring critical stakeholders together and identify the borderline regulatory and oversight arguments around individual products. That is how you create a truly seamless system.

I am optimistic that Nigeria can get there if the government identifies the logs in our wheel of progress and unbundles those bottlenecks.

My biggest concern is the non-performance of critical elements of the value chain and the absence of transparent protocols.

The World Customs Organization and the World Trade Organization preach transparency and predictability. How can we get transparency when charges are hidden?

How can there be rule-based clarity on who pays for what, when the performance of terminal operators is not clear and there is no simple, rule-based dispute mechanism when a service has been paid for but not delivered?

Another major concern is valuation.

There are established principles of Customs valuation, but I do not think Customs is sufficiently accountable to those principles. Transaction value appears to have been jettisoned in practice.

You see a Customs officer use a phone to show what is described as the window or showroom price in China and then use that as a basis for valuation. That negates the transactional value from the manufacturer or factory.

Prices found online, including Alibaba prices, can represent retail or showroom prices and may include additional costs. They are not necessarily the actual transaction value of the goods being imported.

With the networking capability available to the Customs Service under its present leadership, there should be better ways of determining the actual value of shipments. We need a more finely tuned strategy based on facts that can establish the true transaction value.

Accountability should begin with Customs showing the basis on which a valuation has been arrived at.

Ultimately, the foundation has to be efficient, rule based international trade practice across the entire value chain.

I am excited about NPERA. Gone are the days when we talked about the Nigerian Shippers' Council as a toothless bulldog. NPERA has a broader mandate, and it has the capacity to sue and be sued. There are also penalties, including provisions for first offences, subsequent offences, corporate liability and individual liability.

NPERA should focus on pricing first. We need to reduce the cost of doing business at the Nigerian port and, by extension, the cost of doing business in Nigeria.

There must be clarity. We need to unbundle the bottlenecks and have transparency around protocols and processes.

Pricing should be transparent. Nothing should be hidden.

A global practitioner should be able to know the turnaround time, the cost of berthing a vessel, the number of hours required for particular services and the cost per hour or per day. Every ship calling at a Nigerian port should know exactly what to expect.

There should also be no non-state actors involved in critical processes such as ship boarding and berthing.

NPERA should promote efficiency, transparency, professionalism and accountability. With the powers now available to it, there is no excuse for not being able to apportion responsibility and apply sanctions where necessary.

We need NPERA to hit the ground running and make Nigeria competitive within the global value chain.

Freight forwarders and customs brokers also have a responsibility. We need to do more advocacy and ensure that the experience of practitioners is properly communicated to government and regulators.

Advocacy is the baseline reason freight forwarders and customs brokers associate. It gives practitioners an opportunity to expose their concerns and put their experience forward in the interest of a better port system and operating environment.

Unfortunately, advocacy has continued to nosedive. We have seen the emergence of many associations, and some of them appear to have lost sight of the purpose for which they were established.

The push-through has not benefited the Nigerian port system enough, and the associations have to take some responsibility for that.

Many regulations are rolled out without critical stakeholders being involved at the planning and drafting stage. Freight forwarders are often brought in at the public hearing stage, when the substantive work has already been done. That is too late.

Associations need to see themselves as partners in progress and as critical advocacy platforms that can show government where the shoe pinches.

But advocacy cannot simply be about raising concerns. It has to provide practical, fact-based solutions.

Nigeria has the potential to become a leading African trade and logistics hub, but strong institutions require strong advocacy.

When you compare Nigerian freight forwarding associations with their counterparts in other countries, there is still a gap in the capacity and quality of their relationship with government.

Freight forwarders should not be invited simply to increase numbers at meetings or create a show for the cameras. They should have a substantive role in policy development.

The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), which is celebrating 72 years, should be able to provide leadership in this area. We have several associations saying essentially the same things in different voices.

The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) also needs to do more to bring the associations together and create a stronger common voice for the industry.