Stakeholders blame shipping companies, shippers for stranded export cargo in port.

Tayo Oladipupo

The inability of Nigerian Shippers and their agents to upgrade themselves to meet with modern means of business transactions and insincerity on the part of operators led to the recent trapping of over 1,000 export containers in the port corridor, stakeholders allege.

Recall that export laden trucks were stranded at the port gates for about two months during the lockdown with the excuse that financial institutions in the country were not operating.

Dismissing the excuse, Prince Bakare Adeyinka, President General of the National Association of Freight Forwarders and Air Consolidators (NAFFAC), said most of the shippers were not vast in the use of on-line transaction of banks leading to their inability to carry out transactions hence inability to export their consignments.

Speaking with our correspondent at the weekend, Bakare admitted that closure of financial institutions during COVID19 pandemic, affected consignments free flow into the seaports which in turn led to the current challenges faced by shippers.

The NAFFAC boss who also doubles as the Chairman, Nigeria Association of Agriculture Produce Dealers (NAAPD), lamented that during the peak period of the lockdown, haulage freight charges dropped significantly, despite the 30% slash reduction as agreed between the Nigerian Shippers Council and truck owners.

According to him, unavailability of trucks affected movement of exports from the owners warehouses to ports ,noting that the transaction was ineffective during the lockdown.

He added that freight charges during the period also dropped due to scarcity of trucks to lift exports from numerous warehouses to the seaports.

In similar vein, Head of Operations, Council for Maritime Truck Unions and Associations (COMTUA), Alhaji Inuwa Abdullahi stated that the insincerity on the part of the shipping companies and concessionaires also affected delay of cargo movement for onward exportation.

Inuwa who is also a chieftain of NARTO noted that at the initial stage of the lockdown, bank attributed to the stranded containers along the port corridors adding that some freight agents were also not available to perfect the documentations of the clearance procedures.

He noted that the 30% slash introduced by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council on haulage freight rate did not yield the desired results following the scarcity of trucks during the period; a situation that contributed to the stranded export consignments.

Head of Operations NARTO, Chief Stephen Okafor said the lockdown affected the whole sectors of the economy which was not limited to the maritime transport sector.

Okafor admitted that the meeting with the council in line with the 30% slash on haulage charges only covered the lockdown period even as he added “There was scarcity of trucks during the period.”