Soji Apampa is the Founder and Executive Director, Convention on Business Integrity in Nigeria. In this interview with BEN AZUKA, Apampa, who is also the Founder of CBI Innovations Ltd, spoke about the challenges Nigerian exporters face.
According to him, there is a need for the government to improve the process to encourage massive export by Nigerians. Excerpts…
What is the process of exporting cargoes?
The basic costs are the cost that you pay in shipping line, cost that you pay to get the necessary certificates-NAFDAC, SON, terminal charges; all of them for a forty foot container come to roughly N550, 000. Talking of 100,000 metric tonnes, that will be around N2.5 million for about four forty foot containers. That is apart from the cost of the goods inside the container.
Why are these figures not readily available to operators?
The export industry and the role of our officials seem to feed off opacity.
What do you mean?
For things coming into the country, there are standard operating procedures. It is very clear. As a country, we are more used to importing than exporting. The ease to find information on what it takes to import, you can actually trace it step by step. Who do you need to pay this levy? When you open your form M, what do you need to do first? All this is very well documented.
But when it comes to export, it is not as clearly documented. Apart from those in oil and gas, who are shipping and exporting every day, the rest of us don’t really produce anything for export. So, it’s not just very well known for that reason. It’s not that it’s not available, it’s just well known. And once you think you know it, for example, you think you know what charges you have until you say I am going to council, I am not moving my cargo on that day, I need it to go on another day.
Then charges come up that were not advertised. They then tell you, you have to pay for this, and you have to pay for that, and so on; which you did not know prior to embarking on that whole journey. Many exporters find themselves caught in that trap.
What would you say are the most daunting challenges before Nigerians who are exporting to other countries?
Actually, the most daunting challenges for exporters in Nigeria is not cost, certainly, it’s not the opacity, its delays. Those are the issues especially in the Lagos axis, the western ports as they are called. Let me give you an example that has been going around social media. Yams; if you want to export your yams, you take the tubers, they are cleaned, wrapped, then they are put in boxes, the boxes are stacked, you fill a container, and so on.
READ ALSO: Equities market gains N100.65bn on first trading day
Do you know it takes an average 70 days to actually start from packing to exporting that container, seventy something days in Nigeria’s western ports.
Do you know how much it takes to export from Ghana? Three days. So, you can see the frustration? Meanwhile, what will happen to your yam that was fresh the day you packed it and has spent seventy something days and hasn’t left Nigeria’s shores, more than two-third would have spoiled, it would have rotted. By the time it arrives in Europe, of course, it will be rejected. So, many Nigerians who actually want to export first take their things to Ghana, once you get it to Ghana you know in three day it’s in Europe. Isn’t that crazy? So, that is the biggest challenge. Where does that come from? Again, it’s the multiplicity of agencies that we have to go through.
I have to do SON, I have to do NAFDAC, I have to meet so many regulatory requirements before I can get anything out of the country. If you look at it, all of these things together, add cost, add delay, wastage, is it really worth the while to ask Nigerians to become net exporters. It’s like we are not quite ready for the export business.
Do you see the African Continental Free Tree Agreement addressing these issues when we are talking about Nigerian export to other African countries now?
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement just tells us there is a massive market called Africa and those who are going to benefit from it are going to be those who can actually consolidate cargoes.
So, am I consolidating cargo in Nigeria for Nigerian vessels to carry because if I want to ship from here, it will reach Antwerp first. I cannot ship from here directly to Ghana. Which shipping line do you have that will carry your goods to Accra? You don’ have? Kenya, the other day launched some vessels that they built in Kenya, Ghana has vessels.
So, you will give your trade to other people, you will be seeing other people’s blue economy with your eyes but your mouth will not taste out of it as they say, because that is what is going to happen except we do something. We budget money for various things like infrastructure, and for things like ships. Where are the ships? I understand from Senior Mariner, Captain Iheanacho, from one of the interviews we did with him that during Obasanjo’s time, a lot of vessels were bought but today not one single one of them exists.
So, if we don’t have ships, how are we going to export, we will have to depend on those who come from Europe, so, they will be the ones to actually stage it. Togo is already a hub, Tema port is already a hub, Abidjan can also do the same, and they can also do the same in Dakar. They will skip us and jump to maybe Port Noir, or somewhere else further down. There’s really for the Gulf of Guinea, for Nigeria that is centrally placed within the Gulf of Guinea. We don’t have the ability. Take Single Window for instance.
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) says by January 2024, all countries should have implemented Single Window, abeg, where is our own single window? We don’t even have a single window. Customs will reject what I said because they have a single window, but that is not what was envisaged? It’s a single window that all stakeholders can use to perform their duties is what I am referring to as a single window.
The one that Customs have just for itself is a good first step, but that is not enough whereas, in other countries you do your documentation once. Everybody who needs the documentation has access. That’s why everything is very quick.
It means we are still talking about the multiplicity of having to do the process a number of times. Will the new trade policy 2023-2027 address these challenges?
We know as Nigerians that it is not the policies that are the issues. Although some policies helped, like Executive Order 001, when it came from the Presidency, which has now become the business facilitation Act, that was very important, very strategic, in the implementation. So, that one was strategic and was working simply because the shippers council, ports authority, and all the agencies at the port were mandated to make it work.
The Shippers Council was given the authority to do it. Now, these other trade policies, abeg, who is driving it, what’s in it for them in driving it? If it isn’t clear, then it’s not going to happen. We’ve learned in Nigeria that it’s not enough to have the policy; you also have to designate a lead agency to ensure compliance with that policy if you are going to get anything out of that policy implementation.
The NBS in its report stated that second quarter non-oil exports increased significantly outweighing imports, is it sustainable?
I don’t know if it is sustainable. I know that people can’t find access to forex, and I hope that is what is driving it. I hope that people are waking up. Actually, until you export, you don’t earn foreign currency.
You need that foreign currency to be able to improve your life. So long as we are in the message that we are in with forex that will be sustained until people get some relief and they go back to consumption, just import because as I mentioned, it is difficult for those who want to export. The first things we need to change are the processes. We need to change it on the import side.
When things are clearer, we can do the same on the export side. On the import side, vessel clearance used to be expensive and difficult, it has improved in Nigeria and it is globally recognized. Cargo clearance has improved somewhat. In some terminals, they are doing double the number of containers they used to do.
That has improved also. But the export side is now what we need to focus on and we can replicate the same thing, so, it’s not hopeless. It has good prospects because we already know what to do to make it work.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.