The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) in collaboration with the Convention on Business Integrity, has worked to keep seafarers calling at Nigerian ports safe from corrupt demands since 2019. The objective of the initiative was to address corruption in Nigeria’s port sector, which posed significant risks to shipping companies, taking forms such as extortion, harassment, and threats of violence. The initiative aimed to bring together shipping companies, civil society, and government to work towards improved transparency, a stronger governance and accountability frameworks for port call procedures and increase the ease of doing business in Nigerian ports. A key contributor to success was the Anti- Corruption HelpDesk concept, a 24/7 public-private real-time resolution-mechanism. If a stakeholder deviates from standard port operating procedures, a MACN member can contact the HelpDesk team which can then escalate the matter in the various government agencies affected. More than 800 ships have used the HelpDesk, reporting 129 incidents where a corrupt demand has been made. Of all the cases, 99% have been resolved. Since 2021, vessels have reported an average case resolution time of 1 to 8 hours, an improvement over the 7–10 days it took prior to the HelpDesk structure. For a shipowner, the operational costs (staying in port, being delayed, processing paperwork) have therefore been reduced from approximately $ 150 000 to $ 20 000 per port call.
Source: MACN, https://macn.dk/member-area/country-guides/nigeria/
