The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) gets frenzied in its desperate move to transmute into a revenue generating government agency using the instrument of the contentious implementation of the International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN) as its trading point, undermining the fact that the scheme is captured in the Nigeria Customs Act 2023
By Our Correspondent
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) is seeking to metamorphose to a revenue generating agency by fiat. This desperation has become ostensible in its subtle and desperate moves to persuade and arm twist the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to implement the now controversial International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN) which job does not fall within its establishment Act, but in the purview of the Nigeria Customs Service. But the NSC is vigorously lobbying for another Act at the National Assembly to situate the implementation of the ICTN in the hand of the Council, a situation that will give two Federal Government agencies authority over the same scheme.
The NSC has as part of its duty to interface between the organized shipping companies and financial institutions on one hand, and the fragmented cargo owners and small businesses on the other hand to avoid the exploitation of the latter group by the former.
The Shippers’ Council in Nigeria was designated the economic regulator for the shipping industry in 2014 under former President Goodluck Jonathan, thus empowering it to be pushing for increasing port efficiency to attract more maritime trade into Nigeria.
A prominent former Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer (ES/CEO) of the NSC, Dr. Hassan Bello, explained the duties of the indigenous Council thus, “In shipping, there are those who provide service and those who utilize the services. The two groups are not on equal footing. The carriers, large financial institutions, and banks are organized and financially robust.
“On the other hand, the shippers and owners of cargo are fragmented and often represent small businesses. So, there is the tendency for the latter group to be exploited. The government needs to regulate the industry such that both sides can play by the same rules, and Shippers’ Councils worldwide are spokespersons of shippers”.
In recent times, especially under its incumbent ES/CEO, Dr. Pius Akutah, indications have emerged that the NSC has wittingly or unwittingly abandoned its primary and statutorily assigned job to be pursuing vigorously the implementation of the ICTN, a pursuit that has pitted it against industry experts and critical stakeholders in the maritime business domain. These have raised the alarm over the ploy by the NSC to seek to duplicate the job of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
The NSC believes that the ICTN will be implemented in the second quarter of 2025 amid daunting opposition mounted by many experts who insisted that the Council was incompetent to handle the project due to obvious reasons.
According to the CEO of the Council, Akutah, the ICTN is a technology that is targeted at boosting trade and addressing issues of malpractices that have existed in the seaports for decades. He said that the ICTN is also designed to ensure the traceability of goods across international borders by assigning a unique identification numbers to each shipment.
Furthermore, the Council argued that the project when implemented, would enhance visibility and accountability in the shipping process, reduce opportunities for fraud, smuggling and theft, particularly in monitoring daily crude oil exports, importation of illicit drugs and arms, among others into the country. Akutah stressed further that the ICTN would help customs to perform more effective inspection of cargoes, faster cargo clearance process and reduce unnecessary delays which will boost Nigeria’s global rating in maritime and shipping business.
Akutah added that the ICTN Bill had been passed by both chambers of the National Assembly waiting for presidential assent, insisting that the country had lost a whooping $500 million per year in the past five years the implementation of the project had lingered.
Amid these perceived losses and gains being advanced by the NSC, shipping business experts have accused the Council of seeking to transmute into a revenue generating government agency using subtlety to convince the Federal Government. They alleged that the Council has been wasting its resources to engage in media campaigns, hiring professional advocates and deploying all kinds of subtlety to achieve its goal of collecting revenue from importers and exporters in the name of ICTN.
Experts lamented that the maritime business domain is already burdened with numerous levies, taxes and charges imposed on the business community by government agencies, shipping companies and terminal operators which are contributing to making Nigerian Ports more expensive environment for international trade than other neighboring countries, and adding to the cost of imported goods which is transferred to the final consumer.
Hence, shippers, importers and exporters, as well as clearing agents and freight forwarders have been raising the alarm against the transfer of the cost of the ICTN to the business community.
In condemning the NSC’s intention to levy the business community to realize the annual $500 million revenue to be generated from the ICTN, A retired Customs Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Chinedu Christian Ogbonna, who spoke to the media, stressed that since Nigeria had no visible National Development Plan (NDP) and trade policy in place, it would be difficult for the country to achieve anything meaningful with the implementation of the ICTN. He further argued that Nigeria had no bilateral trade agreement with countries of origin of Nigerian-bound cargoes, hence the country cannot enforce cargo tracking in those countries.
Ogbonna argued further that the NSC is more interested in the money it intends to rake in from the cargo tracking note than rendering service to Nigerians, revealing that the policy would compel importers to pay when they open documentation, and the NSC would insist such payment must be made in dollars to track cargoes.
According to Ogbonna, the Council would evolve into another revenue generating agency without value addition to private businesses. “What is Shippers’ Council’s business or interest in tracking private businesses?”, Ogbonna asked.
On the issue of security, Ogbonna said such issues should be handled by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), not Shippers’ Council, and that the importers who will be under investigation in the event of implementation of the ICTN, should not be the ones to pay the Federal Government for investigating and tracking their cargoes. He asked the Council to open up on where it intends to generate the purported $500 million yearly revenue if not from the same importers and exporters who are already over taxed.
Ogbonna: “The issue of national security should be handled by the Office of the National Security Adviser and other security agencies if Shippers’ Council is talking about security. Importers should not be the ones to pay for tracking their cargoes because they’re being investigated under the cargo tracking system. This will lead to cargo diversion.
“They’re talking about national security, yet Boko Haram keeps bringing in arms. Shippers’ Council is looking for where to make money. If Shippers’ Council is talking about national security, it should allow the NSA to handle that. It means Shippers’ Council is looking for free money to collect.
“A board should be set up to look into the International Cargo Tracking Note critically, not the hasty way the Council is going about it.
“Whose trade or cargo do you want to track? Nigerian Shippers’ Council has no cargo, no ship; why do you want to track others and transfer tracking charges to them? Shippers’ Council should allow the shipping companies to do the tracking. Alternatively, government should have a budget for funding cargo tracking, and not imposing tracking levies on the importers and exporters who are already bleeding due to multiple taxes and levies”.
In a similar tone, a group of shippers under the aegis of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), has petitioned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to halt any further implementation of the ICTN as being championed by the NSC. In a petition dated February 3, 2025, addressed to President Tinubu and signed by the President of the NCMDLCA, Lucky Eyis Amiwero, the shippers said it was necessary for them to intimate the Federal Government with the Shippers’ Council’s desperate plot to reintroduce the ICTN which had been suspended due to its cost effect on cargo clearance.
In the petition titled, “International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN) is not Tied to Serve on Fees and Charges Imposed on Importation and Exportation and Not Backed By Law”, Amiwero said, “We hereby bring to the attention of the Federal Government the push for the implementation of the International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN) which was first introduced by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in 2010 and second in 2015/2016 by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council(NSC), and now, there is a recent push by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to implement a scheme that was suspended due to the cost and procedure and its effects on cargo clearance”.
Amiwero told President Tinubu that a Technical Committee of Maritime Stakeholders was constituted in 2016 to review the introduction of the ICTN and resolve concerns of stakeholders on some knotty issues. Members of the Committee included NSC, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Shippers Association of Nigeria (SAN) and the NCMDLCA.
Its terms of reference, the petition read, included, To examine all costs associated with the implementation of the ICTN, ascertain where the cost burden will rest with a view to ensuring that the already cost of doing business at the ports is not worsened, to examine the basis and justification for all related charges with a view to reviewing same, as well as to review the implementation and documentation procedures for charges and services. The Committee was chaired by Amiwero himself.
In the same petition which was copied to the Vice President Kashim Shettima, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Minister of Finance and Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, Amiwero informed Tinubu that the ICTN was suspended after the Committee had considered its implications and complexities, and also observed that it was not backed by law and also not tied to any service.
“It will create additional procedure that will constitute delay in the already lengthy and cumbersome port operations.
“It is not tied to serve of any sort as contained in Article 6 of Trade Facilitation Agreement(TFA) on fees and charges imposed in connection with importation and exportation”, the petition observed.
It went further to explain to President Tinubu that the Nigeria Customs Service Act puts the customs in charge of cargo tracking note, not Shippers’ Council, to develop, maintain and deploy electronic system for cargo tracking and clearance as the lead agency for exchange of information among government agencies in the ports.
The petition stated, “Furthermore, the Nigeria Customs Service Act Section 28(1)-(4) covered the obligation of cargo tracking note which conferred authority on the Nigeria Customs Service to develop, maintain and deploy electronic system, while the Service is the lead agency for exchange of information between the Service, agencies of government and traders.
“It clearly specifies; all persons directly or indirectly involved in the accomplishment of customs formalities; application and authorization concerning the Service procedure or status of specific importers, exporters, customs representative/licensed customs agents and others involved directly or indirectly with trade facilitation; revenue collection, protection and accounting; risk management.
“The Service shall also specify the standard form and content of electronic data consistent with international best practice rules regarding maintenance of data.
“The Service shall also specify rules for access to electronic system and data by Service officers, government agencies and traders through regulations as may be issued by the Service “.
According to the petition, the Nigeria Customs’ duties capture most of what the Shippers’ Council intends to achieve with the deployment of the ICTN.
It noted, “In addition, Section 35 of the Act specifies the Service may render pre-arrival process, examine documents and data relating to the goods in the course of commercial operation involving the goods in order to ascertain the accuracy of the particulars contained in the goods declaration and other documents, information and data; examine and take sample of goods where necessary at the premises of the holder of the goods or his representative or any other person directly or indirectly involved in the transaction or in possession of the documents, information and data relevant to the examination.
“As provided in Sections 28 and 35 of the Nigeria Customs Act, the deployment of electronic systems and pre-arrival process is the exclusive preserve of the Service, and it’s the lead agency to all government agencies, which clearly exclude other government agencies from deploying international electronic tracking note system.
“The legislations of other government agencies do not contain any provision of electronic system and pre-arrival process in relation to import and export and the clearance of goods, deploying any electronic system is in contravention of the laws, additional cost, duplicated process and obstacle to trade”.
Lending support to the position of the NCMDLCA, President of the Shippers Association of Lagos (SAL), Jonathan Nicol, said the additional charges that will be imposed on owners of cargoes would increase shipping costs and impact negatively on individual’s businesses. Nicol added that shipping companies and their charges have already covered ICTN-related costs, but he lamented that under the NSC ICTN structure, there would be additional administrative charges which would be imposed on shippers, thereby increasing financial pressure on businesses which are already struggling with ever increasing operational costs.
According to Nicol, the initial understanding of the ICTN was that the tracking exercise would not involve extra charges, but with the Shippers’ Council’s involvement and emphasis on revenue collection, it would be counterproductive for the government to adopt the NSC’s template which is intended to strangulate businesses and increase inflation.
A credible customs source which craved anonymity said the NSC knows that it is not in its Act to drive the ICTN, but because the Federal Government is using politicians like Akutah to run the Council, they will always seek for ways and means to rake in free money.
Asked why the Council failed to collaborate with the NCS to drive the ICTN, he said Shippers’ Council knew that Customs would not allow it drive the implementation of the ICTN even if the Service was approached. According to the source, Customs are deploying diplomacy to follow the Council so as to avoid any visible clash of interest because both agencies are working for country.
The source revealed further that the Shippers’ Council is being allowed to try its luck to convince the Federal Government but the Council may end up in a wild goose chase.
Confirming the source’s revelation, the Zonal Coordinator for Zone A, Nigeria Customs, ACG Charles Obih, at an event on Thursday, February 27, highlighted the gains of the ICTN in a paper presentation on behalf of the Comptroller General, Wale Adeniyi, in Lagos, by concluding that Section 28 of the Customs Act has already ceded the implementation of the ICTN to the Service.
