Port Congestion:  Stakeholders urge NPA, Customs to detain vessels refusing to pick empty containers 

Stakeholders at Nigerian ports have urged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigeria Customs Service  to stop issuing sailing clearance to any vessel that fails to pick empty containers equivalent to the number of containers they import into Nigerian Ports.

At an exclusive breakfast meeting with our correspondent in Lagos on Tuesday, the stakeholders berated port regulatory agencies including the Nigerian Shippers Council, NPA for not doing enough to compel the terminal operators and shipping companies obey rules of engagement at Nigerian ports.

Deputy Chairman Freight Forwarders Trade Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Mr. Las Alli Shobande noted that the main cause of the congestion in the ports is that most vessels come into the ports with 2,000 containers and they go back empty, thereby forcing Nigerian importers to pay container holding bays.

According to him, NPA and Customs are the authorities responsible for inspecting inward and outward manifests of vessels. He maintained that they should be able to compel vessels to pick empty containers as much as they are importing.

Shobande alleged that currently, there are more than 10,000 containers stranded at the Tin Can Island ports alone, with 4,000 of them stranded at the Tin Can Island Port.

Speaking, he said “The shipping companies are marketing the space on their vessels at our expense, using Nigeria as a stacking area for cheap rent of containers, they are storing containers here at a very cheap rate”

“Why would you store containers here and reserve space on your vessel, you go to other countries in the west coast to pick export, Cote de Ivoire, Tema and so on. They are marketing their vessel, they come into Nigeria with their vessel full and they go empty to pick cargo elsewhere at our expense, and you store the containers on people’s trucks at no cost”

“The NPA should publish manifest of vessels going out for the last one month for all the shipping companies and you will see the rot we are talking about”

“NPA and Customs are supposed to compel the shipping companies to take empty containers, inward and outward manifests, when you’re are coming in with 2,000 containers, by all sensibilities you should take 1,500 when you are going out. But when you come in with 2,000 containers and you are going out empty without a single box, this is senseless”

“The agencies should stop issuing sailing clearance to vessels that does not carry empty containers, they should start paying demurrage on vessels like the importers are paying” he said

The LCCI chieftain said that shipping companies collect N200,000 container deposit for local and 400,000 for upcountry, and still lament that the cost of transporting empty containers from their holding bays to the port was too high.

On his part, Chairman of the Tin Can Island Chapter of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Prince Segun Oduntan lamented that the port congestion was affecting clearing agents by 90%.

He lamented that cargoes hitherto cleared within five days are now taking one month to exit from the port.

According to Odunatan, the port congestion “has reduced our customer patronage because people are now leaving for Onne Port, some people prefer to take their cargo by air now, some are even shying away and prefer to take their cargo to neighboring ports. Our work efficiency has drastically reduced”

“Whatever affects the importer affects us, the importers are paying exorbitantly, for example, if you want to take a 20 foot container of any particular consignment to Ikeja, in the past we pay N70,000, but now it is N400,000, who pays for this? It is the man on the streets”

“It is affecting the importer and it affects us also because whatever affects the head affects the body”

The ANLCA Chairman lamented that the annual subscriptions paid by licensed customs agents to the Nigeria Customs service is now out of place as there is no corresponding jobs to handle.

He said “The payments are out of place, we are paying to Customs N300,000 annually which is not supposed to be, NPA is also collecting from us, we are paying to both the Finance Ministry and Transport Ministry”

“They have now brought out the Practitioners Operations Fees (POF) what is POF? we are not practicing anything now because there is chaos in the system.