Freight Forwarders Accuse TICT of Arm twisting at Bollore Bonded Terminal

By ZION Olalekan |

Freight Forwarders have accused the Tin Can Island Container Terminal (TICT) of allegedly collecting storage and rent charges on containers even when the cargoes are yet to arrive at its off dock bonded terminal; Bollore.

Speaking with our correspondent at the terminal, a freight forwarder Jonathan Owoh alleged that without due consultations with the importer, TICT stems containers to its off dock terminal, SCOA bonded terminal at Kirikiri Lagos, and that two weeks before arrival of the container, TICT starts charging rent on it.

Owoh said that on most occasions, the shipping companies collect N20, 400 per day, while the terminal operator collects N12,000 per day on such a container.

“TICT charges N12, 000 per container, they are the owner of SCOA, initially when they allocate a ship to SCOA, they will not charge you until the container is transferred to the terminal, but now if they allocate a ship, they will start charging you from that very day to pay storage without you seeing the container, it might take them three weeks or one month to transfer the container and you will pay them the whole storage, this is very bad!

“The supervisory parastatals are not doing anything about it despite all our complaints, maybe it is because it is not affecting them. The excesses are too much and nobody controls anybody.

“I personally have a container that spent three weeks and I paid N500,000 storage. There should be a synergy to ensure that until containers are transferred to the terminal, there should not be charges.

“After eleven days, the shipping companies collect N20, 400 per day, while some collect N24, 000 per day. For terminal operators it is N12, 000 per day as from ten days upwards.

“Sometimes you would have finished all the processing of clearing your cargoes but because of the traffic situation, you might not pick the cargo until after two weeks.

He also lamented that due to the perennial traffic gridlock on the access road to the Tin Can Island Port, the TICT commenced the use of barges to move containers to SCOA terminal. He however claimed the process was slow.

“It was recently that they started using barges due to the bad state of the roads, and this barge takes them time. Initially they don’t charge until you see your container and after three days they start charging, but now they don’t do it, they are ripping us off.

“They were the ones that allocate the ship to SCOA by themselves, it is not on demand, it is their duty to take their containers to where they are stemming it to”, he said.

Also corroborating this point Public Relations Officer of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Tin Can Port chapter, Emmanuel Onyeme said the terminal operator was taking undue advantage of the traffic gridlock in Apapa to milk clearing agents.

He alleged that container deposits running into millions of Naira are being depleted daily due to the traffic, resulting in a situation where the terminal operators and shipping companies smile to the bank at the expense of Nigerians

“This has been the old system of the terminal operators, that is what they do, every opportunity is an added advantage to them, they capitalise on it, more so when their issues on ground like the transportation and not having holding bays, they capitalise on it”

“One of the major challenges we are having in the movement of cargo to the bonded terminal is the cost of transportation coupled with the strike action that the truckers embarked upon recently, the cost of transportation has gone so high”, he said.

However, speaking with our correspondent, Managing Director of TICT terminal, Etienne Rochers described the report as untrue.

He challenged any operator with genuine complaints to come forward with it.

Rochers said “If anyone has allegation, he should come out with allegation of any wrong doing, but I am not going to make comments over the phone because I don’t know who I am talking to , I would suggest that you send me a mail.

In any case, there are so many rumours that circulate every day on many subjects, so I will not respond to any allegation, you can please send me an email and we would take it from there” he said.