Fish and rice imports through the nation’
seaports have dropped by over 80 per cent, the Seaport Terminal
Operators of Nigeria has said.
The spokesperson of the terminal
operators, Mr. Bolaji Akinola, made this known in an interview with our
correspondent in Lagos on Wednesday.
For instance, he said, “In 2010, about
112 ships of fish made up of 401,000 tonnes were handled at the Lagos
Port Complex Apapa. This has been the highest volume since port
concession.
“In 2013, this number reduced to 69
ships, representing a total of 220,000 tonnes of fish but from January
2014 to date, only 18 ships have been discharged with a total of 62,000
tonnes of fish. The decline is due to the quota system which became
effective this year.”
The Federal Government had last year
announced that fish imports would be banned in four years and the duty
raised from 10 per cent to either 50 per cent or 100 per cent. The new
system was said to be aimed at replacing imports with domestic
production.
However, following a public outcry over
the anticipated scarcity of fish, the import ban was in December 2013
replaced with a new policy to cut fish imports into the country by 25
per cent per year by introducing import quotas from January 2014.
The quota system is said to be aimed at
reducing Nigeria’s frozen fish imports by 25 per cent and stopping the
import of fish species such as catfish, tilapia and croaker that are
produced in Nigeria through local aquaculture and capture fisheries.
Akinola said, “Even though the
importation of fish through our ports has dropped, there is no scarcity
of fish in the market. We now have a situation where importers are
diverting their fish through Cotonou ports and then smuggle it into the
country.
“It is the same situation that applies to
rice imports. Annually, about two million metric tonnes of rice are
handled at the ports. This volume has since fallen with the introduction
of the 110 per cent import duty and levy on imported rice.
“In 2013, only 15 shiploads of rice were
discharged at our ports; this amounted to 386,000 tonnes. From January
to August 2014, the volume has remained very scanty – about 135,000
tonnes so far with only about seven ships coming into the ports.
“Yet when you go to the market, you see
rice everywhere. While Nigeria is charging 10 per cent as import duty,
another 100 per cent levy is imposed on rice, it is zero duty in
Cotonou. This is the reason why our importers are patronising
neighbouring ports, especially Cotonou, and then smuggle these goods
into the country; Nigeria is losing.”
Akinola said terminal operators that
specalised in bulk cargo operations such as rice and fish imports had
been most hit by the policy.
He said that the terminal operators had
since the port concession invested over $925m in improving
infrastructure at the terminals.
Despite improving the level of port operations, he lamented that the port terminal operators were losing business.
He said though the volume of car imports
which the Nigerian Ports Authority released in the first half of 2014
report was high, it would drop in the second half of the year.
A total of 154,846 vehicles reportedly
imported in the first half of this year, which showed an increase of
16.5 per cent over the same period of 2013 with 132,930 vehicles.
He said, “What really happened was that
some car importers in anticipation of the new auto policy had imported
many vehicles; I know of a company that imported about 10,000 units.
That is why the volume was high for the first half of 2014.
“Now that the auto policy has come to
stay, its effect would be felt in the NPA’s second half 2014 report
because importers are already diverting vehicle imports through
Cotonou.”
