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Nigeria Loses N847bn To Unrecorded Shipments, Under-declared Cargoes Annually

Nigeria is losing a monstrous N847 billion to unrecorded ship movements and under-declaration by vessels calling at the nation’s seaports, Senior Special Assistant on Maritime Services to President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Leke Oyewole, has said.

Mr. Oyewole, who revealed the figure in a chat with journalists, said the federal government was losing $15 million (about N2.4 billion) daily. The figure amounts to N70 billion in a month and N847 billion in a year.

The Presidential aide explained that the loss was arising from the illegal activities of some ships that fail to declare their presence on Nigerian waters and those that under-declare the volume of cargo on board.

He said that government agencies in the maritime industry also failed to capture up to 10,000 ship movements on Nigerian waters in the last six months, but added that serious efforts were being made to block the loopholes.

He said, “This is a most unfortunate situation but we are working with all the agencies concerned to stem this ugly tide. It is so sad that the Nigerian economy is losing such a huge amount of money due to the activities of some dubious shipping companies. We are closing in on them and I assure you that before the end of the first half of the year, we will block all the loopholes in our system.”

The presidential adviser blamed the ugly situation on lack of inter-agency cooperation between key maritime and security agencies, which include the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Nigerian Navy (NN), and added that the divide had become source of concern to the Federal Government.

“Out of concern for the lack of synergy, I requested Mr. President’s approval, which he granted, for a maritime inter-agency meeting. We started meeting in June, last year and within the first three months, we recorded 6,000 ship movements on Nigerian waters,” he noted.

Source:Leadership Newspaper