By Richards Adeniyi
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) recently made strong moves to compel all shipping agencies to open Disbursement Accounts (DAs) from where they will carry out operational costs for their multinational principals overseas.
The apex bank and the ports economic regulator said this was in line with Article 4 of the UNCTAD minimum standards for shipping agents all over the world.
The Executive Secretary, NSC, Mr. Hassan Bello explained during a meeting between the CBN representative and shipping industry stakeholders at Rockview Hotel, Apapa, Lagos, that maintenance of a disbursement account as provided by ‘UNCTAD Minimum Standards for Shipping Agents’ stops the agent from going to the local market to source foreign exchange to settle charges incurred by the vessel locally.
Bello who was represented on the occasion by the Director, Legal Service of the Council, Mr. Samuel Vongtao, identified such charges to be covered by the DAs as those collected by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); ship chandelling costs and other local shipping costs.
Bello said such charges were usually in foreign exchange since “it is assumed that the principal must have wired the funds to the disbursement of account of the agent in foreign exchange”.
According to him, it was left for the agents to make such payments in currency that was transferred to the disbursement account rather than going to the interbank market to source for foreign exchange”.
The CBN Deputy Director, Foreign Exchange Management, Trade & Exchange Department, Mr. A.S. Jibrin said the idea of the meeting with the stakeholders was to ensure that the DA enjoys the support of those in the shipping industry.
Jibrin explained that what the CBN set out to do was to listen to the stakeholders on the DA, adding that the apex bank was interested on policies that will grow the shipping industry and the national economy.
He said decision on the policy could not have been taken without hearing from those in the industry.
Jibrin said he was happy about the consensus opinion being expressed at the meeting that the Disbursement Account should be introduced.
A former Director, Shipping Services of NSC, Mrs Dabney Shall-Holma said the Disbursement Account when introduced will go a long way in improving the contributions of the shipping sector to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Shall-Holma while noting that the shipping sector was nearly absent or too low in terms of GDP contribution said it was not good that shipping operators were not contributing enough to the economy.
Among those who spoke in favour of having the DA in place were founder of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA), Iju Tony Nwabunike, a member of the Nigerian Economic Group, Dr. Ikenna Nwosu, President of Nigerian Ship Chandlers Association, Dr, Martins Enebeli, former President of NAGAFF, Dr. Eugene Nweke, among others.