Shippers Council Brokers Peace with Grimaldi Shipping, NAGAFF Over Port Access Card

By ZION Olalekan |

Coming on the heels of complaints and controversies trailing the issuance of biometric port access card by Grimaldi Shipping, operators of PTML Terminals, the Nigerian Shippers Council on Wednesday held a peace meeting between the shipping company and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF).

At the meeting which held behind closed doors at the shippers council headquarters in Apapa , the council ordered the terminal operator to issue the card based on identity cards issued by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN)

Speaking exclusively with Nigeriamaritime360@.com on Wednesday, the Director of Compliance and Monitoring of Shippers Council, Mr. Carjetan Agu who presided over the meeting, directed that both the Customs License and the CRFFN Act should be recognized in issuance of port access cards.

Agu said that it was wrong for Grimaldi shipping to unilaterally introduce a charge of N10,000 collectable on port access card without first notifying the agency as the port economic regulator.

He told our correspondent that the meeting was inconclusive and that the council is also fixing another meeting with Grimaldi Shipping alone within one week so as to look into the cost of card issuance.

The Shippers Council director promised that the agency would liaise with Nigeria Customs Service and the CRFFN to see how both can come up with single acceptable procedures for issuance of port access cards.

Agu said, “We have resolved certain aspects, but there are certain aspects that are still pending, the issue of processes and procedures for the issuance of biometric identity card, NAGAFF contention is that why should they use customs license, rather they should use evidence of registration with CRFFN?

“The position of shippers council is that the CEMA law and CRFFN Act are both recognized, so the operator is supposed to obey the two laws; on the part of the shippers council, we can liaise with the CRFFN and the customs to see how they can both come up with common procedures and processes to be utilized for such registration.

“On the issue of money being collected by the PTML, it is purely an economic issue, so shippers’ council as a regulator is still going to meet with the operator to discuss on that.

“We equally made it very clear during the meeting that PTML never contacted us before the introduction of the new levy, we were not contacted, and we are equally sure that they did not contact the NPA, so it is wrong for them to introduce it unilaterally, we are going to discuss this with them in our capacity as a regulator.

“These are two laws and you cannot say that you are ignoring the CRFFN law, information reaching us is that at other terminals, if you have a CRFFN identification card, you can be granted access card into the terminals. So we have asked them to recognize both the customs license and the CRFFN identity card” he said.

Agu said the next meeting would hold within one week.

Sources at the meeting told our correspondent that the Grimaldi Shipping was represented at the meeting by General Manager of Grimaldi, Tunde Keshinro, and Deputy Managing Director Nitin Senan, while NAGAFF executives were led by the chapter chairman, Mr George Okafor and Elder Ugochukwu Nnadi.