Automation: Task of Enforcing Paperless Operations in Nigerian Ports

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With all eyes on what happens in global arena, maritime industry stakeholders are desirous to have full automation at Nigerian ports as part of trade facilitation but are hindered by corruption, bureaucracies, lack of synergy and integration among critical players. In this report Francis Ugwoke examines automation in Nigerian ports, the journey so far and what stakeholders believe can lead to a success story as obtains in other advanced countries…..
For every maritime stakeholder, the mention of world big ports like Shanghai, China and Singapore rings a bell about their level of perfection and efficiency in cargo delivery operations. To many it is still a surprise as to how they are able to cope with the container volumes or vessels being handled on daily basis. Shanghai is the largest container port worldwide based on 2019 throughput. The port handled 4.3million teus in 2019, according to latest statistics published by Statista Research Department. It has capacity to handle 744 million tonnes with efficient management of 32.5 million containers of dimension equal to standard containers simultaneously. It is followed by the Port of Singapore which attracts 140,000 vessels annually with 537.6 million tonnes. The maritime industry contributes 7percent of Singapore’s GDP and 170,000 jobs, according to statistics. The country also projects that by 2025, the sector is expected to create additional 13,000 jobs. This remains an eye opener to many as to what a modern port is all about. In these ports, for a first time visitor particularly those visiting from the developing countries, one is marveled at the serene atmosphere in the port environment. Nigerian officials who had visited on account of learning how to fashion our own ports to advanced ports give account that these ports are not typical of an environment where millions of containers are handled. And this is for obvious reasons. It is away from what happens in Nigerian ports. There is no human heads loitering around the gates and terminals as the case in Nigerian ports. And that is a typical example of what technology can offer in modern port operation. In the ports of Shanghai and Singapore, automation is the key word covering decision making (yard management), gates, tracking and tracing, yard cranes, quay cranes, freight forwarding and indeed trucking system. Everything works perfect with no congestion and breakdown on the port environment. It is all trade facilitation at best. This is indeed what the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) as the ports economic regulator would want to be achieved in Nigerian ports, a high level of efficiency in trade facilitation. The Council has been preaching for effective automation covering all services in the ports in such a way that a freight forwarder representing his shipper can stay in his office and get a cargo released without having to physically be at the ports.
Automation in Nigerian ports
Nigeria has no doubt introduced automation in most of her port services. Every agency has embraced automation. This ranges from Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), among others. But a lot still needs to be done to reach global standard in shipping services by way of complete integration. This is what the NSC is working on to achieve at least by the end of this year or early next year, according to the Executive Secretary, Mr Hassan Bello. To some extent, Bello agrees that there is definitely some level of improvement on automation, but would wish that the standard as obtains in advanced ports comes to play in our own maritime environment. At a recent webinar, Bello called for the adoption of virtual ports operation as imperative in fast-tracking development in the maritime sector, adding that the present system in the ports industry was too cumbersome. He believes that the nation’s seaports can operate 24 hours as is the case in the airports provided adequate measures are put in place. 24 hours operations in the ports, according to him, will reduce the human contact and usher in paperless era.
He called for integration of all stakeholders in the sector, including the Customs Service, NPA, NSC, importers, terminal operators, freight forwarders to achieve a 24 hour ports service. Automation of ports services and deployment of multi modal means of evacuation of goods will definitely enhance on ease of doing business at the ports. Bello said the current congestion in the ports was bad for business because of the multiplier effect.
The journey to automation started in 2006 after the concessioning of the ports. It was re-enforced in 2014 when government agencies in the sector received directive from the then administration to this effect. Government had been inundated with complaints that the cargo dwell time (CDT) was the highest in the world, according to the World Bank report. The Bretton Woods institution had also then described Nigeria as one of the most expensive places to do business in the world. One is not too sure if this has changed. But the reason given was mainly corruption. Multiplicity of government agencies, several channels of payments, among others were identified as the problem. In all these, human contact played a part and government was briefed that the only way out was to implement full automation in all aspect of cargo clearance in what will eliminate human contact. Given our peculiar environment, this is no doubt a big task to achieve within a short space of time.

Areas of automation
In advanced ports, automation is found in all aspects of ports services. It begins with information about the cargo itself and the processes to clear them without one having to visit the ports. Even the trucker who picks the cargo is contacted online and he goes to the ports to pick the item and deliver the cargo intact without physical meeting. In Nigeria, it is a herculean process when the cargo arrives the ports, beginning with unloading the cargo from the ship to the terminal when the importer receives his goods in the warehouse. To some extent, with the level of sensitization and equipment audit embarked upon by the ports economic regulator in the past few years, there has been tremendous improvement in cargo handling equipment provided by terminal operators. Except in very few case, many of the terminal operators have invested heavily in acquiring cargo handling equipment. Just recently, one of the terminal operators, APMT Terminals said it had invested a total of US$438m into port infrastructure development, information technology since 2006 when it took over the terminal under concession agreement. The terminal operator had launched two new multi-million dollar mobile harbour cranes (MHCs) at Apapa Port, which cost was put at US$80m. The company claims it has a total of 10 MHCs, 23 rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes, six empty container handlers, 48 specialised truck terminals, six stackers and 11 forklifts. With this, the terminal operator can indeed cope with the task of attending to vessels bringing cargoes into the ports as well as positioning containers for customs examination. Other terminal operators are not left out in these necessary cargo handling equipment needed at the ports.
Scanners
While industry stakeholders are happy about the state of preparedness on the part of terminal operators and shipping companies in trade facilitation, what is missing right now in the ports is the presence of functional scanners. This is completely the prerogative of the Customs Service. The leadership of the customs does not appear bothered about this apparently because it believes more in physical examination of goods. This no doubt is to be able to unearth the activities of unscrupulous importers who may want to bring into the country weapons of mass destruction. But scanners can also take care of this where the need arises. Many stakeholders have expressed concerns about the absence of scanners in Nigerian ports and its effect on trade facilitation. This is against what happens in other neighbouring ports which have invested millions of dollars to acquire scanners as part of their automation process in cargo handling operations. Ghana recently announced acquisition of $24 million to acquire scanning machines. Cotonou ports also did the same in what makes cargo examination faster for shippers. Reacting to lack of deployment of scanners in Nigerian ports, the Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman had attacked the Customs Service for still adopting manual cargo inspection at the ports at such modern time. Hadiza in a TV interview had advised the Customs Service to be part of those promoting efficiency at Nigerian ports by deploying scanners and automation. “We are working assiduously with the terminal operators and the Nigeria Customs Service to fast track the process of evacuating cargo from the vessel and importantly the inspection of cargo. This is something that is of great priority to the ports authority, government and more so for Customs. We need to deploy scanners at our ports so that our cargoes can be inspected using scanners. Right now, as a lot of consignees are aware, our cargoes are inspected physically. You can imagine how difficult and challenging that would be having cargoes that come into the country examined physically. We need to make sure that we put in place automation mechanism to improve port efficiency”, she said. Hadiza did not spare the customs leadership here and spoke the minds of hundreds of shippers and their freight forwarders who had lamented to no avail.
How corruption affects automation
In Nigerian ports environment, areas where automation has become very effective is in payments of NPA charges, customs duties, terminal handling and shipping companies charges. But having done this, the customs agent will still have leg-walk to do by visiting physically the service providers to confirm that payments have been received. The agent must also visit the Customs where he is likely to receive queries on his payments. He has to interface physically with the officer who would probably demand settlement if the shipper wishes to get lower debit note (DN) or suffer higher surcharges. During examination of cargoes at the ports, the shipper or his agent must be around to settle officers conducting this or this process would be delayed. To industry operators, Nigeria needs to move towards smart ports with high level of automation where automated cranes deliver containers from ships to the port through unmanned yard cranes. These containers are then stacked according to type of cargo and inventory. Automation should also go further to impact on other processes, including what happens at the gates where a lot of security checks are required. Automating entry and exit gates will go a long way in eliminating rounds of manual check as is the case in Nigerian ports where most times settlement is what determines how fast the truck or vehicle is allowed to go.
President of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Increase Uche described automation as very necessary in all facets of ports operation. Uche said this has even become imperative with the current era of coronavirus pandemic. “We need to depart from this manual processing of any stage of port operation. This should involve everyone, the banks, the freight forwarders, customs facilitation, shipping companies, cargo delivery from the terminal. There should be comprehensive integration of all the players. All port operations need digital transformation and the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic experience should be a major reason why the single window implementation must be put into motion to promote automation. Uche recalled that in 2006 when the ports were concessioned, automation worked for some months with the introduction of ASYCUDA 2.7 by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) before being scuttled by some unscrupulous customs officials who felt that they were not making personal money as a result of automation. Then, he said, there was absence of physical human interface when entries are being run. He said, “ We expected automation to have worked in 2006 after the ports concession, then perfection should have followed, but as the process was being perfected at that time, up to 2008, you can request for payment of customs duty, you do the assessment, you take delivery of your cargo without interfacing with anybody. As at that time, with scanner once your cargo is on green lane what you require is to go to the terminal and carry your goods to leave. By that nothing is causing you any encumbrance. But at a stage, when the customs at Customs Processing Centre (CPC )discovered that nobody was coming there anymore, and those at the terminals found out nobody recognized their presence any more, they started posting alerts. That was what reversed the whole thing. The CPC that was almost deserted became lively again towards 2008 and early 2009. That is how the whole thing was reversed again. So that was how automation under ASYCUDA 2.7 was reversed again”.
However, Uche was of the view that eventhough corruption has impacted negatively on automation, government can still change the trend with strong will power. He also gave account of the role Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) played in checking corruption at some point when it was introduced. He said, “ after the port concessioning when the system was so transparent and coupled with the fact that CTN was working, every information pertaining to the cargo is available with CTN. Then if you had issues, Customs will say go and bring your CTN which will contain every information that helped to resolve so many problems. But at a stage, the whole process was thwarted, people were no more getting what they were targeting for their individual pockets and this affected automation”. He added, “as much as we know that corruption is a threat to automation, but government can still exert its will power to make it work as it works in other climes. Individual interest cannot override public and government interest. If you go to ports of Anthwerp and Rotterdam, the level they are now is Radio Frequency Identification Device (DFID), that is what is being used whereby it is fired on container . There you don’t need to go for scanning any more they have advanced to some other levels. Here (Nigeria) we are talking of functional scanners which are not even working, so government can do something and make automation work despite the mindset of some players in the system”.
Similarly, a maritime expert and also former President of NAGAFF, , Dr. Eugene Nweke refers to how efficient other advanced ports have remained, adding that this was as a result of automation.
He said an efficient automated port system, is expected to “posses the capacity for unhindered communication via Single Portal which provides for single lodgment process, validation of data, inbuilt security device, prompt business intelligence monitoring and responses, accommodate users templates, minimize efforts for all parties via seamless net-workings”.

He added, “therefore, submission of inwards, outwards and transshipment declaration/shipping manifests and the distribution thereof to regulatory agencies of the government is made easier, thereby facilitating trade. In an automated port system, port users can place orders, make inquires from any given point, at any time. This is because, an automated port system supplies information and keeps track of Cargo movement on 24/7 on line real-time information irrespective of the cargo source. Permit me to say that, port automation signals a paperless documentation regime in the port-shipping operations, wherein, lead time for the submission of documents and processing are done almost instantaneous, reducing man hours and associated delays”.

He believes that what obtains in Nigeria currently was far from the needed national centrally driven automation process, referring to the multiplicity of automation efforts as represented by different agencies of the government.

He argued, “National automation process is devoid of undue agencies supremacy tussles, it is driven purely on national interests. This is why the World Trade Organization (WTO) is calling signatory member nations to migrate into the National Single Window concept”.

Nweke said the Nigeria Customs Service has a near national automated system but limited to trade, a robust interface and interaction capacity as required.

“Same goes with the NPA, NIMASA,etc. All of them seem to be driven by core agency objectives which is a negation to whole essence of National e-commerce networking amongst the port/shipping companies. Ordinarily, one should expect that, this evolution of national port automation process should be a core focus of the Nigeria Shippers Council”, he said. He explained that this was because the Ministry of Trade seems to be far from the global realities.
“From all indications, it appears that the trade ministry has surrendered it’s administrative obligations to the Transport Ministry, perhaps for policy concerns”, he said.
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He called on the federal government to as a matter of priority harmonize it’s policy objectives beyond the various Ministry interests represented by NCS ( Finance Ministry), NPA & NIMASA ( Transport Ministry), NAFDAC ( Health Ministry), SON( Trade Ministry), etc for a common goal.

Arguing that the Presidential Task For on Ease of Doing Business didn’t achieve much in its campaign on account of non seamless integrated process, Nweke said it was imperative to allow
the NSC as the ports economic regulator to sustain its advocacy in this direction.
“I must also note that, going by what obtains in any country where National Single Window permeates, by WTO/WCO recommendations, the Customs serves and stands as a lead agency to drive the process. Unfortunately, since emphasis is on seamless trading and trade facilitation and not revenue generation, I doubt if it will be appropriate for the Nigeria Customs to lead, hence, the need to score administrative balance or reconcile the inter play between trade facilitation flexibility and revenue generation rigidity”.