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Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo Economy bleeds over Contract of Carriage
The Nigeria Customs Service(NCS) may have listed conditions under which the 24hours cargo clearance operations at the nation’s ports could be achieved.
The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, recently handed down an executive order directing that cargo delivery should be down at the ports within 24 hours. This has been eliciting mixed reactions from Nigerians and port industry stakeholders.
Speaking at the just concluded two-days National Conference on Bill of Lading with the theme: “Bill of Lading as a Contract of Carriage: Problems and Challenges in the 21st century”, the Customs Area Controller Apapa Command, Compt Musa Jubril, said, “ It is important to improve synergy among all agencies and relevant stakeholders to eliminate unnecessary checks, fees and reduce operational cost, thereby effectively reducing cost of clearing and cargo delivery time”.
According to him, “the deplorable state of access roads to and from the ports also causes congestion as the ports often become inaccessible for the trucks, cars and other vehicles. Government should endeavour to improve ports infrastructure and road networks as this has huge impacts on the economy.”
The conference was organized by Land and Sea International Limited, a transport consulting firm.
Admonishing the terminal operators to provide efficient and appropriate equipment and manpower for effective service delivery, Jubril listed 17 major causes of delay in cargo clearance to include: Failure to produce bill of lading as part of final documents to process PAAR, failure to receive soft copy of original bill of lading before arrival of cargo at country of destination, loss of original bill of lading, suspicious amendment requests by shipping companies.
Emphasizing the importance of Bill of Lading in international trade, Jubrin, represented by one Assistant Comptroller of Customs, Yahaya Stated that, “A bill of lading is a document issued by a carrier, or its agent to the shipper as a contract of carriage of goods”.
He was of the opinion that the challenges of port operations are enormous but not insurmountable, recalling that “In the mid-1980s Nigerian ports were functioning at 47 per cent of their installed capacity with a 28.7 per cent less cargo throughput than previous years. After the implementation of the privatization and Commercialisation decree in 1993 and the eventual concessioning of the ports to over 20 concessionaires in 2006 the nation’s port reforms has, despite heavy set backs had improvements in throughput and cargo dwell time. According to reports by United Nations Conference on Trade and Developmemt(UNCTAD), Nigerian ports experienced a 3.3 per cent compounded Annual Growth Rate(CAGR) within the past 5 years and it is expected to grow by 1.8 per cent yearly through year 2021”.
In his keynote address at the conference, the Executive Secretary Of Nigerian shippers’ Council(NSC), Barr. Hassan Bello said that the economy has lost millions of naira in revenue to ignorance arising from lack of understanding of the various rules and conventions which govern contract of carriage, ambiguities, inadequate and poorly drafted clauses. “ All these have sometimes led to liabilities on a party who will never otherwise agree to sign such contract if properly.” He noted.
Represented by Mr. Celestine Akubuilo, Assistant Director, Port of NSC, Bello said that over the years, NSC has been organizing enlightment programmes aimed at filling the knowledge gap among practitioners of international trade transaction.
