PHCCIMA President Harps On Re-Inventing Port Harcourt Seaports to a Shipping
Hub
President of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce,
Dr. Emi Membere-Otaji has stressed the need for the federal government and all
relevant stakeholders of the shipping industry to give adequate attention to
re- inventing Port Harcourt seaports to ensure they are brought back to their
original status as a bustling shipping hub as envisioned by the founding
fathers.
The PHCCIMA helmsman who made this assertion
while speaking shortly after his return from a trip at the Port Harcourt
airport said this has become necessary in the light of weakening global oil
prices and as a response to the Nigerian government’s new mantra of
diversification.
According to him, Port Harcourt was originally
created as a port city and shipping hub to export coal and agriculture products
in 1912, but however when crude oil was eventually discovered in 1956 it
changed everything. He said the city moved from export of non oil products to a
major industrial center with a number of large industrial firms and
particularly to businesses related to the oil and gas industry.
“When crude was discovered, everything in the
city changed and was hinged directly or indirectly on oil, the city drifted and
abandoned the ideals of the founding fathers who positioned it as a shipping
and commercial hub beyond crude oil” he said.
Consequently he disclosed that the decision had
ensured that Port Harcourt and indeed the old Rivers state is paying the price
and feeling the pinch brought about by the weakening oil prices.
“Hence, Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce is
seriously engaging a whole lot of stakeholders to see how we can get the city
back to what it was originally created for; to be a shipping hub for
agricultural and non oil exports, while still providing a base for the nation’s
oil and gas industry”, he said.
He recalled that old Port Harcourt port was
about the 2nd largest port in the country, but however regretted
that the port is now underutilized and is facing huge facility challenges. “We
agree we have the Onne port managed by Intels and is acclaimed one of the
biggest oil and gas free zones in the world, but the Onne port is strictly
focused on oil and gas related cargo and their charges are astronomically high;
even non oil cargo are charged as if they are oil related and this is not good
for business in this era of economic diversification”, he opined.
The PHCCIMA helmsman particularly pointed out
that another challenge is the persistence inaction on the part of the port
regulators concerning disparity in rates charges between the Lagos ports and
the eastern ports.
Hear him: “What we don’t understand is why cargo
passing through Port Harcourt ports will cost more than Lagos? This high rate
is taking businesses away from Port Harcourt. Most business cargo are now going
through Lagos and they are killing the ports in the east. However, one sure
thing is that the swamp land and oil fields and land cannot be taken from where
it is which is Port Harcourt and Niger Delta, hence there is need to expedite
action to ensure that seaports in the state are functional to facilitate import
and export of other commodities beyond crude oil and create strings of
employment opportunities for the people.
Further speaking on the effort of Port Harcourt
Chamber of Commerce, he said PHCCIMA has been doing a lot to remedy the
situation, we are engaging government and other stakeholder’s to see how we can
change the situation and ensure we stop businesses from moving out of the city.
He said the call for more effort has become
necessary because virtually all the importers from Onitsha, Aba, Port Harcourt
and environs now pass their goods through Lagos and this shouldn’t be so. “The
Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA and Nigeria Shippers Council, NSC as regulators
should strive to bring down their prices so that the likes of Intels Limited
will follow suit. They must acknowledge that payments for non oil cargo should
not be tagged along like an oil cargo - so basically Port Harcourt Chamber is
engaging across board from the various levels of government, Ministry of
Transport, Agencies and Intels Limited to see how we can work closely to revive
the Port Harcourt ports.”
“Similarly, there has been a lot of presentation
to us by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC we are interfacing with
the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, NIPC and we have sustained
engagement with the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC. Furthermore, we are setting
the tone to engage Nigerian Ports Authority who are one of the critical
regulators to say that something need to be done to make the old Port Harcourt
port fully functional again while Onne with world class facility needs a review
on its rates to accommodate non oil cargo because what we have in place now as
rates are astronomically high.”
Dr Membere-Otaji who reiterated the need to
stimulate the state economy said Port Harcourt need to go back to shipping
which is the idea of the founding fathers, he said we must take a cue from the
Singapore and Mauritius model that had nothing but were able to identify their
potentials in shipping and today they are among the best and sustaining their
economy with that.
“We can solve the problems by first getting the
old Port Harcourt port back on stream; how? by dredging and further expanding
the ports, which in turn will open up the channels to accommodate and allow
various size of vessels to come in. We must as matter of priority review our
stifling policies to create healthy competition, engage the various stakeholders
to work on reviewing charges to reflect realities and create soft landings to
encourage businesses.
“While oil and gas related cargo is unavoidable
in Port Harcourt businesses, we must as a matter of main concern ensure we also
encourage the non oil related cargo to increase shipping activities; when you
do that there is a value chain in oil servicing, shipping servicing and others
services which ultimately will trickle down to the least businesses”, he was
quoted as saying.
Stemming from the fact that Port Harcourt is
acclaimed to be an oil and gas enclave, the global fall in oil prices
drastically affected the city, oil businesses came down, contractors were not
longer getting jobs, people were being laid off from job and the effect is
massive unemployment and hardship which have consequently led to the usual
socio-economic issues we are abreast with that spirals to other problems.
Looking at the gains of re-inventing Port
Harcourt ports he said, “if we strive to take Port Harcourt back to the idea
envisioned by the founding fathers, we stand to gain a lot as there will be
in-country trading, for example Dangote Limited and others are exploring coal
and other solid minerals in Kogi and other states and we will need marine
haulage in-country that will contribute to stimulating the economy. We must
take advantage of our natural potentials to better our economic life; look at
Mississipi in the US, a River that span across so many cities and states, and
has been instrumental to stimulating those economies - we should be able
to replicate this. We must take advantage of our stretch of coastal lines,
intensify effort on our non oil export, agriculture, industrial fishing and
agro allied products and explore the value chain on petroleum in the form of
petrochemicals and fertilizer plants and it will be a plus for our economy.
Also, PHCCIMA has sent a proposal to the Rivers
State government to set up a Multi-Sectorial State Export Committee.”
Speaking on Security he said, “While security
remains a critical issue not only in Port Harcourt but the Niger delta as a
whole; strong concerted efforts from the major stakeholders especially the oil
companies and strong political will on the part of the national government will
ameliorate the issue.
Hear him: “Only recently the Somalian pirates
made the horn of Africa’s shipping lane impassable but today, that is history
because of strong efforts from key stakeholders. Also we are advocating that
government should put in place a medium to long term development plan for the
oil producing Niger delta beyond the stop gap Amnesty Programme and NDDC.
According to him, from the time of the
pre-independence Willinks commission report, stop gaps have never provided
permanent solutions. Since every business in Nigeria cannot gravitate in Lagos,
a so called ‘safe haven with good infrastructure’, efforts should be made to
develop other cities like Port Harcourt, Kano, Jos, Enugu, Ibadan, Warri etc.
to become excellent economic centres. Anything else will be likened to playing
out the ostrich game.
Source: Aderson Hart
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