‘Single Window operation at ports will ease cargo clearance’

The Ports Consultative Council (PCC), on Monday, called on the Federal Government to establish a single window for port operations to reduce the time of doing business in Nigerian ports.
Chief Kunle Folarin, PCC Chairman, made the call at a training programme organised by the Maritime Industry Advocacy Initiative (MIAI) in collaboration with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in Lagos.
PCC comprises of port operators, including shippers, chandlers and stevedoring companies.
According to him, establishing the single window will enable 48-hour cargo clearance in Nigerian ports.
He said that there was the need to reform virtually all the laws governing the operations of government agencies at the ports in order to make 48-hour cargo clearance achievable.
“Effective Single Window operations will remove face-to-face human contacts which encouraged corruption in the system.
“Government should appoint competent people on the board of the maritime agencies so that the transformation will be achievable in time.
“All the conflicts in the enabling laws of government agencies should be removed and there should be a national objective among them to enable the Nigerian maritime sector to move forward,’’ Folarin said.
He expressed concern about lack of synergy among all the government agencies working at the ports.
A former General Manager, Lagos Traffic Radio, Mr Layinka Adagun, called on journalists to identify neglected areas in the maritime industry to make Nigerian ports the preferred destination of cargo in West and Central Africa region.
“When members of the various beat associations decide to go beyond reporting of events in the industry, they will realise that they have the resources required to constitute themselves into consultancy groups.
“The strategic importance of the Nigerian maritime sector to the growth and stability of the nation’s economy is attested to by its value in the upstream sector of the oil industry,” Adagun said.
He emphasised the need for the maritime media to highlight various areas in the operations of the sector that could further unlock its potential in contributing to Nigerian economic rebirth.
Mrs Ago Nwokocha, a maritime public relations consultant, said that the media had a huge role to play in nation building.
Nwokocha urged the media to engage in developmental journalism and ensure integrity and accountability in discharging their duties.
She, however, noted that the advent of the new media brought about the challenge of fake news and called for the regulation of the new media.
Also speaking, Dr Qasim Akinreti, Chairman, Lagos Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), urged journalists to ensure integrity and look beyond the maritime industry in their reportage.
Akinreti said that the union was working toward establishing a radio station in Badagry to utilize the maritime potential in the area.
On the controversy over NUJ housing scheme in Abaren, Ogun, Akinreti said that the union had concluded plans to allocate the plots of land before the end of 2018.
Akinreti, however, urged members who had remitted dollars to the former land committee to meet the committee personally, saying that the NUJ constitution did not allow the union to prosecute an offender.