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Chief James Idornigie is the chairman, board of trustees, Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA).
Chief James Idornigie is the chairman, board of trustees, Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA).
Outspoken, confident, clear and fearless, he remains one celebrated elder in the shipping industry you will love to relax with. In this interview with Sunday Vanguard Business, Idornigie, who is also the CEO of JOKI (Nig) Ltd, a front line shipping company, and importer, he revealed for the first time, intimate facts about his humble beginning, as well as comment on current and critical issues in the maritime industry
THE other day, you traced your early beginning to Ghana. What took you to Ghana?
I went to Ghana with my late uncle. I was his clerk. He was a transporter and had trucks that traveled between Ghana and Nigeria. We transport cows from Nigeria to Ghana and when coming back, [we] bring white kolanuts. So I was asked to station in Accra to oversee the off loading of these cows, after which we go to Kokoredua to load kolanuts and return to Nigeria.
Would you want to share with others how you got into shipping and freight business? When I was in Ghana, I had an idea of what shipping, clearing and forwarding meant through attending an evening course at the Tema College. When I returned to Nigeria I joined West Africa Steel and Wire, now Nigeria Wire Industry in 1962. I joined as a purchasing officer. And there was an internal advertisement requiring somebody to work at the port, to assist the company's clearing agent. Because of the clearing training I had in Ghana I applied. Mr. Cook a Briton was then the General Manager, he conducted an oral interview for me and ask me to go ahead. I left to found Joki in November 1971.
- What is your reaction to the Container Terminal that was recently sold to a foreign company. Some operators are saying the bid process should have been relaxed for local bidders
When the authority concession the port, it does not mean the port is sold, no, it is leased. Part of the container terminal, you know, it was departmentalized, has been leased to them for a number of years.
After that period, it can be reviewed. I have not seen any indigenous shipping company in Nigeria that can successfully operate our terminals in terms of financial capability, because it involves huge finance. As far as I know, AP Moller is experienced and reputed and should be the given chance to put that port on the path of efficiency and profitability. Maybe later on, Nigerians can take up from there, because Apapa terminal as well as other terminals in the country need to be completely re-organised. The re-organisation will take into account profitable use of every space available in the ports, because of the zig zag way we throw our containers around in the port, you find a congested port.
You think in another 10, 15 years, the ports would have acquire that measure of competency?
Yes. Now the way things are done in the major ports in Lagos is copied in the smaller ports in Port Harcourt, Calabar etc. Presently, it is the manual procedure and that is what local terminals copy. This foreign investors will set the pace for modernisation and Nigerians can follow from there.
What about cases of illegal port charges by shipping companies? Why is ANLCA not adopting a position?
I do not know about illegal port charges. But if you say our ports charges are outrageous, I think that is clear. I think the situation they found themselves have given room to what they are doing. This is a country where you as a Nigerian or an alien can just create charges as you like because there is no regulatory authority to tell you, you cannot exceed this limit. So they found the environment conducive for it and with it an opportunity to make money. Some of them are charging N150,000 per container. Funny enough, the value of the container cargo very often is not up to Nl 50,000. Yet there is no one to report to. So, for them, it is an opportunity to make money. NPAs inability to fulfil their part of the bargain is part .of the problem.
The NPA collects ship dues on all cargo that enters Nigeria. This ship dues covers cost of discharge of the consignment from the ship to the stacking area. By the time these ships arrive Nigeria, the NPA has no facility to offer these shipping lines. They are forced to go outside to lease equipments to offload their ships and stack the containers with additional cost. Then they try to push the cost to the importer. It is their own way of getting their money back because it would amount to double payment for them.
What models of effective clearance do you have in mind that can assist the customs
The bill of entry we used before we changed into SGD form saves time and makes fraud difficult. SGD form entry ordinarily would have achieved more efficiency, but it failed because it is usually not adequately monitored. Besides, it ought to have been reviewed to incorporate the present requirement for today's timely ports operations. Until that is done, nothing much can be achieved. It is alarming how many hands the SGD entry passes through before it leaves the CPC.
You said it was not a smooth journey. Did you lack in moral assistance? How did you start, got bank loan?
The journey was not a smooth at the beginning. When I was to start in 1971, I had no office. I use my car and briefcase as my office. I carry all my documents in my briefcase. I was then riding a 404 car. I drive the car round to a client's office and when I get their documents I return to the car and prepare the document. I will look for a place to type it and go back to my client. Along the line, I came across an India company at Apapa which engaged me to do clearing for them. The Indian operated from his house, his house was his office. He had a car park he was not using. One day he said to me, ‘hey, why don't you use the park as your office'. The only condition he gave to me was that I should pay my NEPA bills.
I accepted the offer. And that was where I was to work for many years. At a time I took up the entire premise. When I was giving the car park for an office, I had only a table and chair. Passer-bye always see me in the open office because the door was always ajar. I started looking for money to partition it. Then a cousin of mine gave me seventy-five pounds. I was able to get a carpenter who bought plywood to partition it into two offices, reception with my secretary and my own office. That money is one thing I can never forget, the £75 as at that time looks like N5 million today.