The country\u2019s port operator, Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) submitted in early February 2024 a report on the implementation of PCS in all the Nigerian ports to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola thus paving the way for the introduction of the new electronic data exchange procedures at all the ports in the West African country.<\/p>\n
The report, which was prepared by NPA and the International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA), a global organisation representing port community systems operators, maritime single window operators and port authorities, outlines the steps Nigeria should take in the short term to comply with IMO\u2019s requirements on the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic (FAL).<\/p>\n
Unified approach<\/strong><\/p>\n IMO spells out the Convention\u2019s main objective to include prevention of \u201cunnecessary delays in maritime traffic, to aid co-operation between governments and to secure the highest practicable degree of uniformity in formalities and other procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2019 FAL Convention made it mandatory for ships and ports to exchange FAL declarations electronically in preparation for the enforcement of the single window approach this year.<\/p>\n The port community systems enable port operators to ensure accuracy of data provided by fleet operators and other supply chain players hence saving time and helping the maritime industry move more cargo with lower levels of emissions.<\/p>\n According to the World Bank, once the PCS has been implemented \u201cships will arrive just in time to pick up their goods, providing more efficient and seamless port operations and helping to decarbonise maritime transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n NPA managing director, Mohammed Bello-Koko, says there is a deliberate government-driven campaign to fast-track the implementation of the PCS as well as locking out vessels that are not technologically equipped to reduce CO2 emissions.<\/p>\n Bello-Koko, who took up his NPA position in 2022, told Nigerian media the Authority is committed to a port modernisation programme and other maritime transport reform initiatives in all its ports partly in response to the ongoing global energy transition, adding, \u201cwe have deliberately factored in measures that promote energy efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to the preparation of the PCS implementation plan, NPA had teamed up with IMO to carry out a detailed needs assessment at all the Nigerian ports in readiness for the new era of electronic data exchange among port stakeholders.<\/p>\n IMO\u2019s involvement in Nigeria\u2019s PCS project started in 2021 when it launched a sensitisation programme among major Nigerian maritime transportation stakeholders such as NPA, Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Customs Service, Immigration, Health services, Agricultural services, Ministry of transportation.<\/p>\n Other stakeholders taking part in the sensitisation were the port terminal operators, shipping companies, ship agents, importers and exporters.<\/p>\n With the submission to the PCS project implementation plan to the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, Nigeria now has a clear roadmap on how to improve the ports\u2019 governance, business model and technology.<\/p>\n The plan also identifies existing gaps in the management of Nigeria ports and recommends measures that NPA need to take for seamless deployment of the PCS at the eight major ports spread along the country\u2019s 750km coastline.<\/p>\n Nigeria, the largest ship owning country in Africa, is implementing the PCS project alongside other port improvement measures such as fixing aging port infrastructure, deployment of adequate state-of-the-art equipment by all terminal operators as well as enhancing the intermodal linkages with all the ports.<\/p>\n With the installation and utilisation of PCSs, Nigeria would not only ease the exchange of electronic information among the country\u2019s maritime transport stakeholders but will also ease intra-regional trade in West Africa, as well as the across the continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nigeria is inching closer to achieving a zero-tolerance for non-compliance to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Green House Gas emissions strategy with the government finalising its plan for the implementation of the country\u2019s port community system (PCS), writes Shem Oirere<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,1376,8],"tags":[289,1382,167,1483,607,1484,290,71],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-4153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-greenport","category-greenport-exclusive","category-projects-initiatives-greenport","tag-africa","tag-digitisation","tag-efficiency","tag-nigeria-ports-authority","tag-pcs","tag-port-community-systems","tag-shem-oirere","tag-sustainability"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4155,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions\/4155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4153"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=4153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}