Multiple Community Levies Discouraging Patronage Of Eastern Ports
While the Federal Government is putting efforts into reviving the eastern ports to attract more ships, the communities around the Niger-Delta region are making the task very tough with undue levies imposed on ships and businesses.
The Eastern ports of Rivers State, Delta State and their environs have been unattractive to both shipping companies and importers due largely to insecurity.
An attempt to address this problem has seen the Federal Government investing in modern security equipment, signing deals with international security agencies and boosting capacity of its personnel to fight the menace.
However, in addition to security threats, our correspondent gathered that prospective patrons of the eastern ports are discouraged by the level of multiple taxation imposed on firms by host communities.
It was gathered that while oil companies paid huge amounts in settlement to community dwellers and traditional rulers in the oil producing areas where the ports are situated, other firms and individuals found it difficult to cope with such charges, thereby preferring to continually patronise the Lagos ports.
A freight forwarder, Jay Michael, said, “It is mostly oil companies that ship essential equipments through Port Harcourt port. Though some businessmen ship goods through PH port, the rate is very low.
“The oil companies and the shipping agents to those oil vessels have money enough to settle the community dwellers and avoid trouble. The oil industry that utilises PH port due to proximity usually doesn’t worry about cost, besides, some of these equipment may be too large and cumbersome to transport through road if shipped from Lagos.
“A boss of mine who is an operations manager in charge of discharging and loading vessels at GAC shipping agency, said militancy, extortion and piracy were the most serious impediments to their operations.
“Except it is absolutely necessary, businessmen prefer Lagos port.”
The low patronage of the eastern ports has seen huge traffic of vessels and business directed to Lagos, resulting in unbearable level of congestion that has lingered for years.
A maritime expert, Dr Vincent Nwani , suggested marketing the eastern ports to investors through a reduction in charges for cargoes discharged there.
But the General Manager, Security at the Nigerian Ports Authority, Captain Iheanacho Ebubeogu, insisted that government’s efforts to address the challenges in the eastern ports needed to be complemented with cooperation from the host communities where the ports are situated.
He said, “Undue royalty by communities on government right of way should stop. We cannot have too many governments. If this is the government right of way and government has put up a tariff for shipping, a community should not come and start asking for one kind of royalty or the other. Undue royalty must be discouraged.”
Ebubeogu noted that the development of deep seaports in the east would go a long way in easing the congestion in Lagos, but pointed out that comfort to shipping in those areas had to be present in order to attract patronage.
“Shipping does not go where it does not have comfort,” he said.
Without a conducive environment, cost of shipping would be prohibitive, he maintained, saying, “If the cost is not competitive, the ports will not be viable for shippers to use.”
Our correspondent learnt that in addition to the levies specified by the government to be paid by firms, the investors are also subjected to the payment of so many levies by the host communities.
A community relations expert, Mr Olufemi Adabale, who has worked in communities in the Niger Delta told our correspondent that firms in the area set up dedicated desks, called Community Access department, to handle annual community projects and other issues as a matter of priority.
He said apart from the community development projects which the firms handle as part of their obligation and corporate social responsibility, there are other levies, charges that spring up from nowhere and the firms must settle or face the music.
“If your ship berths at a particular place, you have to pay. If your rig is situated in a place, you have to pay,” he said.
The revenues don’t go to the government but the traditional rulers and other community heads.
A report by Human Rights Watch indicated that demands made by residents in oil producing communities on firms were often associated with disputes over legal obligations to provide compensation for claims of damage, encroachment on community land or waters, or for access rights.
It added that the claims were often couched in terms of community rights to a “fair share” of the oil wealth derived from their land and the claims were often represented as illegitimate.
Rejection of such illegal demands is often met with protests, necessitating intervention from the military, the report noted.
