Bureau of Public Service Reform BPSR has urged the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA to automate its documentation and payment processes as a one-stop shop to enhance the ease of doing business at the nation’s ports.
The Director-General of BPSR, Dr. Dasuki Arabi, made the call at the 2022 edition of the BPSR Lunch Time Seminar on the Contribution of NPA in Enhancing Economic Growth and the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria, in Abuja.
Arabi said the measure would complement the efforts of the NPA toward eradicating the perceived bureaucratic bottlenecks that had been responsible for the high cost of doing business at Nigerian ports.
”There is a need to automate the documentation and payment processes, terminal operators, shipping operators, and government agencies at the ports.
”If all these processes are automated, as a one-stop shop, it will ease transactions and reduce time and cost of doing business.
”The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), however, has been consistently making efforts to relieve the importers and ports operators with several incentives.” the Director-General explained
He noted that port operations such as scheduling of arriving vessels, allocation of wharf space and cranes to serve the vessels, and loading and unloading of cargoes were very vital to Nigeria’s economy.
In a presentation, the Managing Director of NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, said ports were of strategic importance to international trade as a nodal point in international logistics.
Represented by Acting General Manager, Abuja National Office, NPA, Alh Alhassan Abubakar said the ports industry indirectly contributed to the economy through the facilitation of businesses within other sectors of the economy such as trade, transportation, and oil sectors.
”Excessive port cost or delay can prompt investors to locate new production facilities in other facilities in other countries or regions.
“In many countries, high port costs have an economic impact similar to generalized imports duty, increasing the cost of all imported goods.”
”It is sufficient to say, therefore, that for the Nigerian Ports Authority to really play its strategic role in the context of our national development and economic growth, it becomes germane that our ports must run in line with the requirements of modern shipping and ports management.
”It is good to note that ports operation is about time and space – both must be optimised to make the ports efficient as it comes with its concomitant effects on ports cost and competitiveness,” Mohammed Bello-Koko added
NAN