Nigeria not ready for AfCFTA, can’t facilitate trade, says Amiwero

Former member of the Presidential Committee on Destination Inspection and Ministerial Committee on Fiscal Policy and Import Clearance Procedure, Lucky Amiwero, has lamented Nigeria’s shoddy approach for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), as it lacks key tools of international process of trade facilitation.

He said the components that make up an efficient port, which are also tools for trade facilitation, such as consistency; transparency and predictability are missing in the country’s maritime sector.

Amiwero said time of clearing containers cannot be predicted as well as with the berthing of ships, which he said, is not consistent and transparent. He also pointed out multiple agencies and many charges at the ports, adding that after the 2006 reform, the port has been bedeviled by a lot of exploitative tendencies from every agency in the port.

“We operate one of the most terrible ports in the world, where it is not consistent. When you look at the port access roads, you cannot access the port, you still have to put agencies in the port at a very serious cost to check the inflow and outflow of cargoes in the ports.

“When people are talking about free trade, you have a lot of agencies who don’t understand that you are not going to pay duties for the free trade, because when you have gone into continental agreement, you are talking about moving people, capital and goods without procedural hindrance. Is the country ready for it? Are Customs and others ready? You bring people who don’t understand these things,” he said.

Amiwero, who is also the president of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), said 75 per cent of cargoes within the West African sub-region, which are Nigeria bound are distributed to other neighbouring countries due to lack of deep seaports for the merchant vessels to berth.

He said Nigeria is missing out on domestic and transit cargoes, as well as transshipment, which have fueled unemployment in the country.

“What attracts employment is the freight components, which Nigeria is supposed to benefit from, but Nigeria pays freight for every cargo that comes into this country. The freight is actually being shared by the multinationals that are smiling to the bank.

“We are missing out completely because when you have a full blown implementation of the AfCFTA agreement, then you will start to see the effect in the country. We are just going to be a transit zone and most of the benefits of this continental free trade agreement will be to other countries that are prepared and have facilities and other things to support the trade,” he said.

Amiwero said, already, Ghana is controlling Nigeria’s transit trade to landlocked countries such as Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali because of its facilities.

“Ghana’s transit is being driven by a satellite tracking system; their bonds are electronic and they don’t carry guns moving from one place to another. They have dedicated berths for transiting goods to most of these landlocked countries,” he added.