Transport sector is key for development –NARTO president
The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) is the umbrella body of all transport operators in Nigeria. Since its inception in 1988, NARTO has not embarked on a single strike but recently issued an ultimatum to down tools. In this interview with our correspondent, NARTO National President, Alhaji Kassim Bataiya, says they believe in dialogue in achieving its objectives for national development.
to become National President of NARTO, you need to have experience in transportation business. Do you have such experience?
I started with Sani Brothers Transport Limited, a big and reputable transport company owned by my maternal cousins - where I served as a general manager between 1985 and 1991. Between 1994 and 2003, I co-founded the Bataiya Transport Services Ltd and became its pioneer executive Director, Finance and Administration. I incorporated two transport and general purpose companies - Masaba Transport Services Nigeria Limited and ABKAS Global Services Nigeria Limited - with registered offices in Kano.
I served two terms as the Kano State Chapter Chairman of the Nigeria Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO). My colleagues were impressed with my performance and subsequently elected me to the exalted position of national president of the association during the association’s congress and Annual General Meeting (AGM) in November 2011.
What are the challenges you have faced since assumption of office?
The major challenges include the poor road network in the country; constant harassment, extortion and intimidation of NARTO members on various roads; insecurity on highways in the country, dwindling fortunes of transporters due to foreign exchange rates, lack of parking space in major towns and cities across the country and government policies in various states of the federation.
Do you have anything to show in the two years you have been in office?
We have democratized all tiers of NARTO formations nationwide, adhered to due process in all undertakings both intra and inter-NARTO engagements and, unlike in the past, we now convene the NEC meeting regularly. In addition, there is improvement in the welfare of the staff through a generous review of salaries and other emoluments. We have brought about increase in freight rates both in wet and dry cargo sections of the associations’ operations.
At the administrative level, we have provided official executive vehicles for our national officers and zonal chairmen, and additional operational Hilux vans and buses for our field operations. We have also purchased a befitting office complex in Utako District of Abuja, FCT, to serve as our national secretariat. We recently commissioned 10 new vehicles for our national officers at our just concluded NEC meeting in Gombe to help ease movement and project the image of the association in the eyes of the public positively.
Suffice it to say, we’ve restored NARTO’s integrity and dignity by creating an atmosphere for harmonious relationship with other sister organizations and relevant government agencies like the Petroleum Tankers Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG, IPMAN, MOMAN, FERMA, PPMC, PPPRA.
We have introduced an insurance scheme for dry cargo drivers in the event of accident which could result in permanent disability; we’ve set up a committee to work with NNPC - Retail, one of our stakeholders involved in supply and distribution of petroleum products nationwide. We’ve also initiated and followed up with refund of 5% excess withholding tax by FIRS between 2005 and 2012. We’ve ensured the recognition of NARTO by the Urban Development Bank.
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The association recently held its 3rd quarter National Executive Council meeting in Gombe and Bauchi states recently for 2013, can you tell us some of the major decisions of the meeting?
After the meeting, NEC commended the effort on the current dualisation project on some of our major roads and then highlighted the needs of the inclusion of other major highways for dualisation to decongest them. We also commended the new initiatives introduced by the Federal Road Safety Corps aimed at enhancing safety management and traffic control but at the same time rejected the new vehicle registration numbers in view of the present economic hardship and other negative repercussions that this policy may generate.
At the meeting, we agreed to issue two weeks’ ultimatum to Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board to resolve all the pending issues for the poor implementation of the Project Aquila.
Initially, NARTO supported the policy but now the implementation of the policy is what we totally condemn. We discovered that the tags are scarce; some of our claims for manual loading are not yet settled years after despite all the promises. There is delay in payment under the new Aquila Project among others. So the ultimatum is still valid but we are supposed to meet with them and possibly resolve the issue.
Drivers under the aegis of Petroleum Tanker Drivers recently complained about NARTO’s inability to pay them new salary scale as promised. Have you resolved the issue now?
For now we don’t have any issue with our drivers. The case is with the Ministry of Labour and Productivity. We met with the minister and drivers where we reached an agreement.
Can you throw more light on refund of this 5% excess tax which you have been agitating for?
Since 2006, major oil marketing companies were deducting 5% on the Total Freight Rate against the Transporter’s Margin. If a truck is lifting products from, let’s say Lagos to Abuja, they need a minimum of 1,000 litres of diesel and the transporter has to pay the cost of diesel to marketers, otherwise the truck will not move. So, the freight rate is inclusive of the cost of diesel which is not our own margin. Later, the marketers would be asked to refund the cost of diesel, the cost of the maintenance of the truck and other overhead expenditure (including cost incurred in servicing the truck), plus our own margin out of it. So instead of the marketers to calculate their margin provided by PPPRA, they easily calculated 5% of the margin out of the total freight rate; they charged 5% of the total freight rate; and this has been accumulating over the years since 2006.
How do you relate with other stakeholders in the industry ?
NARTO holds an integral part of road transport section of the Federal Ministry of Transport. We account for a large percentage of revenue to government via taxes and rates, and we provide statistics to government, its agencies and parastatals on vehicle costs, operations, data as well as number of vehicles in circulation in the country from time to time. NARTO has a representative in the boards of FERMA, PPPRA, and the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P).
We contribute to the growth of the economy through useful procedures of addressing issues bordering on road transportation as well as our relationship with other relevant government agencies such as federal Ministries of Works, Petroleum Resources, Trade and Investment, Nigerian Ports Authority, Department of Petroleum Resources, NNPC, PEF, PPMC, FRSC, PPPRA, oil companies (upstream and downstream retail distribution). This has made NARTO very relevant in the scheme of governance in the country.
Furthermore, as a way of contributing to the economy, NARTO is the only association in the country whose members have never embarked on strike action since its inception in 1988. No matter how noble its objectives may be the association believes in dialogue and superior arguments in achieving its objectives and not to paralyze the economic activities of the country.