The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has “fully automated” its operations nationwide in its bid to fulfil the Executive Order on Ease of doing Business, its Managing Director, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, has said.
Speaking at a meeting with stakeholders in Lagos, on the implemen-tation of the order, Ms Usman said NPA would continue to introduce initiatives in line with best practices to ensure that it remains efficient, transparent and accountable.
She also promised that a new platform would be created to accomo-date all government agencies at port for easy transaction.
The stakeholders also urged the Federal Government to give maximum support to the Authority in its bid to enforce the Executive Order by the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, on 24-hour port operations.
NPA, it was gathered, will double its revenue next year, after achieving 90 per cent of its target in the 2015 and 2016 budgets.
A senior official of the Federal Ministry of Finance, who craved anonymity, said at the weekend that things were expected to look up with the NPA’s implementation strategy on 24-hour port operations.
The official said NPA had fashioned a robust template for operations at the ports. Under the new arrangement, revenue leakages will be blocked while improving operational revenue.
With government support, NPA will be able to monitor activities of other agencies, including terminal operators, to track revenues through the unified automation platforms to be set up by its finance department, the official said.
With the introduction of 24-hour port operations and the coordinating role of its leadership, NPA will be able to block leakages. Findings however revealed that a major impediment to NPA’s revenue drive is trade facilitation, while the management is working towards making the sea ports a hub in West Africa.
“To double its revenue and surpass the budget target, what NPA needs is the trade facilitation role of other government agencies. NPA has put its house in order with the calibre of the people that are currently leading the agency. But there is need for the Federal Government to ensure that the role of other agencies makes it easy for any of the land-locked countries in West and Central Africa to know that the cost of the goods that are passing through Nigerian ports are reduced, safe, secured and will be delivered wherever they are needed on time,” the official said.
NPA’s Principal Manager, Public Affairs, Ibahim Nasiru, told The Nation after a meeting with stakeholders that NPA launched the Electronic Payment System and the Electronic Ship Entry Notice (E-Sen), last year as a first step towards full automation of its processes, pointing out that this has tremendously improved efficiency in port operations, as well as added value to stakeholders.
“The Revenue Invoicing Management System and Customer Portal which we have just introduced are fully convergent and real time platforms for our processes, which will lower operational cost and shorten the time for documentation,” Nasiru said, adding that these platforms are fully integrated to the electronic flow of information for business–to–customer and business–to–business with higher availability and flexibility.
He said the platforms are fully integrated with all our existing solutions such as Oracle Financials, Oracle Human Capital Management, NPA Pay Direct via Inter switch and Electronic Ship Entry Notice (eSEN).
“The introduction of this system has the potential to improve our service offering, improve our relationship with stakeholders, create efficient payment method, maximise revenue and minimise losses associated with fraud and revenue leakage.
“The Customer Self Service Portal (CSSP) on the other hand, provides a platform for our customers to initiate and conclude their business process with us and also communicate with NPA,” the Public Affairs chief said, adding that the benefits accruing from this portal, include improved customer service delivery; easy access to customer accounts status; view of all transactions and status in respect of bills; electronic upload of manifest; e-invoice and e-receipt generation.
“Similarly, our Billing Applications which are already operational in all port locations will soon proceed to the next stage. Currently, it covers payment processes in areas such as Lease Fees, Service Boats, Passenger boats, General Bills (Jetties and Trawlers), and Oil Terminal Dues (OTD)/Compulsory Pilotage Rates (CPR).
Nasiru said: “The introduction of these measures has facilitated business growth with high performance and unlimited scalability of the operations of the authority. This is evident from statistics which have shown that cargo throughput increased from 46,150,518 metric tonnes in 2006, to 86,603,903 metric tonnes in 2014, indicating an 87 per cent increase during that period which is due in part to continued efforts at improving processes.”
He said the Executive Order issued by the Acting President will improve cargo-based revenue by 52 per cent within a year and 65 per cent subsequently.
Nasiru said the e-ship entry notice initiative introduced by NPA has improved Gross Tonnage (GRT) based revenue by 38 per cent between 2014 and 2015.
His words: “The deployment of e-SEN and RIMS Solution by NPA has blocked all leakages in our operational activities by 95 per cent and the remaining five per cent would be blocked upon the launch of a command and control centre which is expected to go on stream by the end of November, this year.”
He said before the end of this year, “operational leakages would be a thing of the past in all the nation’s seaports as NPA plays its coordinating role in the implementation of the Executive Order”.
The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) National President, Prince Olayiwola Shittu, said the body was happy with the giant stride so far taken by the NPA in the implementation of the Executive Order.
“Nigerian Shippers, Cargo owners and shipping lines have a lot to benefit from the coordinating role the NPA is playing in the execution of the order issued by the Federal Government on 24-hour port operation. Its appointment as the coordinating agency is an excellent initiative of the government to improve efficiency and save so much time and costs. NPA, we believe, is up to the task,” he said.