The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency has called for the review of the nation’s trade policy especially on the carriage of goods by Free On Board basis rather than Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF).
NIMASA emphasized this during the recent seminar with the there, “How to Improve the Maritime and Allied industries Revenue in a Depressed Economy” organized by the League of Maritime Editors last week.
According to the NIMASA Director General, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, a change in policy from FOB to CIF is one pertinent way to generate more revenue for the nation. He noted that even the foreign nations don’t deploy FOB in their transactions with Nigeria.
The NIMASA DG, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Cabotage Services, Capt. Sunday Onome, also called for the upward review of duty payable by foreign vessels coming into Nigeria.
The DG also lamented that Nigeria was losing 3% NIMASA level on mother vessels which are diverting to neighbouring ports for Ship-to-Ship transfer, thereby dearie ingredients the agency and the nation of the revenue.
The ships that come into Lome are over 200 vessels in a month, if they had cometo Nigeria they would have paid 3% levy to NIMASA which will be about $30, 000 to $40,000 per vessel.He also stated that the government should introduce tax holidays and guarantee credit for Nigerian investors in order to improve the maritime and allied industries in the nation.
Speaking on some of the challenges facing NIMASA, Capt. Sunday said, “NIMASA needs boats that would be used by NIMASA officers to monitor and survey the Nigerian waters”
Also speaking at the event, the Assistant Comptroller of Customs and Zonal Coordinator of Zone ‘A’, Mr. Charles Edike stated that stakeholders have been responsible for the volume of delays witnessed in the Customs process as they have refused to comply with the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) which was initiated to facilitate trade.
Edike stated that most importers and agents have not embraced the PAAR as a crucial tool to facilitate trade, even as he highlighted that PAAR was a lady bless agenda to reduce the cost and time of doing business at the ports.
