‘Nigeria may become a hub soon’

Danny Fuchs, MD,
Lagos Channel Management

Managing Director, Lagos Channel Management, Danny Fuchs, in a chat with Maritime Editor, DELE ADERIBIGBE, unfolds the vision behind the training of Nigerians in the career of seafarers where they could actually earn hard currency. Excerpts:

Shipping operators have expressed happiness that your organisation met the draft of the Lagos channel at about 9m, and within a short time managed to dredge it to the present 11.5m. What is the implication of this mere two metre difference sir?
The main implication is that when you make the channel deeper, you can bring in super vessels; with higher stack of container. So, in one voyage the ship could bring in more cargo, and this could force down the freight (i.e. the fare).

Now, you know that if the freight cost is low, business can be established with the chance of boosting profit. So, the beauty of a deeper channel is that it enables you to bring in ships capable of sailing in with more materials, more merchandised, and more containers per voyage. And this is the soul of the business.

The other thing is that when you are able to bring in bigger ships, it also opens up for the country, the chances of working with the big shipping companies, like Maersk Line. For those companies with such vessels, they want to be able to sail in and get those big ships into the harbor; otherwise, only small ships will come in and this may hamper the fast growing pace of the maritime industry.

Despite the economic importance of hub port in Nigeria, most stake holders never really spoke for a hub as a result of the poor state of our channels. Now that we seem to have gotten a good hold of the channel, how close do you think the country now is towards becoming a hub?
Let me say, we are naturally closer to it now than before. But then, you must let me remind you that there is more to becoming a hub than only mere dredging the channels.
There are other factors which must include the issue of pilot age, the state of the buoys, the tugs, the pilots and a whole lot of other activities which may also include security of vessels, and cargo.

The factor must also include the efficiency, on the management of the terminals. A very efficient terminal operation means that ships would be able to come in, berth and discharge very quickly and sail away, thereby achieving good ship turn-around time.

It also means, being able to create confidence in the bigger shipping companies, to sail in, and discharge even containers belonging to other countries, knowing that those containers are totally safe and will remain so, until smaller ships pick them, and carry them to those countries where their ports of destination are located.

But we all know that Nigeria is already scoring high in this direction too. This is why I strongly believe that we are naturally closer to becoming a hub, than before. Yes, we could become a hub very soon.

Ports in developed countries assist in the generation of electricity. A good example is the port in Liverpool, United Kingdom using the giant wind-mill-like structures. Do you think the Apapa Port can generate electricity, even if it would involve the idea of bringing in of foreign experts?
Before you rush out to bring in the experts, you must first determine the velocity of winds. And how long each burst stays. I mean the degree of the force of the winds.
You need to determine the gradients of velocity. These help to determine sustainability or the viability of the project.

Therefore, you must first determine the over all cost of generating such power. It is the totality of these, which enables you to know weather it is economically viable to do so; this is because, there may be other cheaper sources of generating same power, using other cheaper available alternatives.

Nigerians are yet to understand the notion of the joint venture currently existing between the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA and your organization. What most people know is that the Lagos Channel Management LCM is a joint venture of some sort.

The LCM is actually a joint venture. It grew out of the good understanding of two organizations, the NPA and the DEPASA International Marine; with the NPA being the senior partner. We have a board whose Chairman is the Managing Director of NPA (which is presently Mallam Abdulsalam Mohammed). The board is assisted by a number of directors. They are five in all, with three coming from NPA and two from the private sector.

The joint venture gives its main services to NPA according to agreed terms. The beauty of the joint venture is that the DEPASA has the machinery, has the knowledge, the man power and the expertise to do the job. So, its like one brings in the equipment, technical know-how and the other brings in capital.

NPA gives us the task to perform and we do it to specification. We should not do it free. If, however, the joint venture wants to make more money, I can go to meet a third party, I could collect more jobs from the third party and bring in more incomes to the company; and share more profit for the joint venture partners.

Industry operators are happy that your organisation has decided to train Nigerians, as this will enhance capacity building in the country. How exactly did the idea of training Nigerians begin in your company?
The idea comes from two considerations- one is business; the other is the human side, but both are two sides of same coin. From the side of business, we want to lower our expenses, so as to run our company better. Our company strongly believes in the maintenance of international standard. Now, that also ensures that we always come up with high expenses, it means we must bring in specialized hands from Europe, at great expenses to our purse. The cost of hiring internationally acclaimed hands from Europe is very high. Compared to what a trained person here would earn.

So, in order to cut our running cost, we decided to embark on training or capacity building, We decided to train, to educate available hands to the same high internationally acceptable standard to work on board our ships. Of course, this would enable us cut cost. But at the same time, it would help us develop career officers for the Nigeria, to work elsewhere and earn fantastic salaries outside.

It means we must develop for the country, professionalism, leadership, management, ability, and a whole lot of other skills require to effectively function on board a ship. For you to work on board a ship, you must be adequately trained; you must be a leader, you must be able to give commands, you need to follow up tasks objectively. So, we say why not!

I think it is a good opportunity to pick men, give them the drive, and make for them career opportunity- to start as officers and rise to become high officers who can go out and work offshore; rising to become general managers, managing directors of companies as career officers.

And I think it is a good idea to give them career opportunities. My prayer is that other companies, particularly those in the private sector can appreciate our vision and compliment our effort. We need to give skills to other people to enable them grow career-wise. I know it takes a lot of efforts. If Nigerians are trained, it would be easy for them to find very high paying jobs. Because, at the end of the days, the salaries in Nigeria are not so high, compared to what others earn in other parts of the world.

So, if we can train people here, and certify them, we can also export them to work on board the ships in other parts of the world like the Filipinos are doing at great advantage to their economy. If you train Nigerians sir, are you going to allow them to leave your company to work elsewhere for other companies?

Why not?! As a matter of facts, that is what we hope to encourage. Only that we may also collect some small commission from the [hiring] company. Of course, that would form part of the agreement between us and those companies. Why not! It would simply be on purely business terms.

So, in the final analysis, it becomes a win-win situation for all concerned. We make business for our joint venture partners, and at the same time make career officers of the people. For the men in the world, particularly for officers, the demand for their skill is high. There is nothing I would prefer than to have them on board ships from other parts of the world. And if Nigerians can work all over the world, why not! This is my vision.

Stakeholders hail customs’ anti-corruption war

Dele Aderibigbe, Lagos

PORT Stakeholders’ Forum and the National As sociation of Government Approved Freight For warders (NAGAFF) have become the latest groups of stakeholders to laud the new initiatives being put in place by the Nigeria Customs Service NCS to ensure a hitch free cargo facilitation regime at the Tin Can Island Ports Complex, Lagos.

The duo also denied having seen any high-handedness in the commands on-going anti-corruption war against sharp practices, noting that sanity has however been restored in the hitherto crime infested area. The area they also affirmed was formerly a hot spot for forging of documents, otherwise called Machined Outside (MO), concealment of goods, outright importation of contrabands, among others, before being sanitized by the Mallam Ali Wakili-led Customs command.

The secretary of the Port Stakeholders’ Forum (PSF), Owelle Chuks Kanikwu, who expressed satisfaction with what he described as the real application of the rule of law, said he expected a barrage of protests from freight forwarders who had hitherto had field days as they perpetuated corruption to complain, even beyond the mild complainants, since they were most hit by the on-going anti-corruption war.

Kanikwu made it clear that the law being applied in the clearance of goods in the command still remained the Customs & Excise Management Act (CEMA) and other regulations approved by the government.

He advised importers and agents crying foul to adjust and abide by the rules and join hands in supporting Comptroller Wakili and his team in sanitizing the system in the overall interest of everybody, adding that the Customs Area Controller (CAC) had demonstrated his uncompromising nature to corruption in the course of his duties, sparing no malpractice both from the importers, their agents and fellow officers.

He highlighted that Mallam Wakili had always been ever ready to listen, as well as ever ready to assist customs agents when they encountered difficulties in the course of duty.

The frontline freight forwarder informed that as a result of the good works being done by the Wakili-led command, stakeholders had joined forces with the team to ensure that they played by the rules of the game. This, he said informed the regular interactive sessions they now held with the management of the command and confessed that for those in genuine business, this was the era of boom.

Speaking on same issue, the President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Mr. Usman Sanusi, debunked the claims by some agents that the command had been high-handed in its operations.

He said those spreading such rumours were the people who were neck-deep in import fraud whose business had been halted by Ali Wakili and his dedicated officers.

“We have to put the records straight. Those saying the command is high-handed are those the zero tolerance for corruption stance of the command has affected. “We in NAGAFF also got the complaint of the high-handedness and we confronted Comptroller Wakili on it and when we got there, he showed us convincing evidences of malpractices perpetrated by agents. We saw files of forged receipts, forged documents, that is MO, cases of concealment and outright importation of contraband items and asked us to advise him on what to do in cases like these”, the NAGAFF boss said.

“Of course, we encouraged him to continue the good works because that has been what NAGAFF has been fighting for since its inception. Please don’t mind those crying wolf. Those complaining were merely doing so because with Wakili, it is no longer business as usual”, Sanusi a graduate of the famous World Maritime University, Sweden, remarked.

He posited that what the command was doing was the whole essence of port reforms programme of the Federal Government stressing that the era of trade malpractices was over.

Usman however advised agents or importers who felt aggrieved on the modus operandi presently adopted by the command to seek redress in the courts of law if they felt they had genuine cases, noting that the country was in the era of the rule of law.

Anything short of this, he counseled, they should remain quiet and join the command in making trade facilitation a thing of joy as it was done in other climes. Investigation at the command reveals that fraudulent importers and their agents including their Customs officers collaborators are always clamped into detention from where they face prosecution at the courts. This may have become responsible for the much touted congestion at the Tin Can Customs cell.

Consequently, many agents are currently said to be on the run for fear of arrest while others while others not comfortable with the command’s hard stance on trade malpractices are relocating to other areas seen as safer haven.