Freight forwarders lose N30bn containers deposit to shipping companies - ANLCA Chief

Tayo Oladipupo

Freight agents under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) have claimed that the Nigerian importers and their agents lost a whooping forty billion Naira as container deposit to the shipping companies operating in Nigeria in 2018.

The National Vice President of association, Kayode Farinto disclosed this in Lagos recently saying that such deposits always got depleted while empty containers were lying on trucks waiting on queue for weeks and sometimes up to one month trying to access the port to return he empties.

He revealed that the shipping companies had devised another trick to extort Nigerians as according to him, “When they realised that your container deposit has depleted and you are yet to return the empty container, they will now slam you with what is called container detention charge”, which he described as criminal and could only happen in Nigeria where nobody is showing concern.

While harping on the need to come to the aid of the Nigerian importers particularly the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) this new year, he however added that government must come down heavily on the shipping companies that do not have holding bays.

“We are going to submit a memo on this, we are going to come down heavily on these shipping companies because they are extorting Nigerians and it is not as if they are investing anything per se but they are just milking Nigerians dry and they still repatriate this money abroad. It is very unfortunate. All these secrets are open to us and we are going to submit memo to CRFFN and am sure CRFFN must do something urgently about it”, he said.

He further frowned at the situation where customs officers at the ports would release a consignment only for another set of customs officers to arrest the same consignment describing it as unthinkable as well as an eyesore which must be addressed.

In his words,” You will see a container that is leaving the ports, just in front of Area B, younger officers will be conducting examination. It is a barbaric situation, each time I pass there, I feel heavy burn in my heart but we decided to lie low because of the coming elections. The moment the elections are concluded, we are going to face ourselves on this.

“Once a cargo is released in the port, it is either you allow it to go to the consignees’ warehouse or don’t release the cargo. Anybody that wants to conduct examination should come to the port but a situation where a senior officer will release a cargo and just 20 metres to the seaport, if you go to Mile 2 too, you see officers conducting examinations, it is unhealthy and people are looking the other way and pretend as if all is well.

“A lot of things are happening in this industry that I personally, am not happy about, I am very sad about it and we are just waiting for the election to go, the moment election is concluded, we face ourselves squarely”.