Hike in port tariff drowning Nigerians – Concerned freight forwarders

By Gboyega Oni

Concerned freight forwarders in Nigeria have raised an alarm that indigenous freight forwarders and indeed all Nigerians are being drowned and impoverished by obnoxious port tariffs hike and an uncontrolled incursion of foreigners into the industry.

They also said that a systemic denial of cargo allocations from the mother port to offdock bonded terminals has totally wiped out bonded terminal operations.

The freight forwarders said they are sinking fast into abject poverty losing their jobs to foreigners daily while many of their importers now operate below their capacities or have totally stopped importing because of tarrifs hike.

Two seasoned freight forwarding and bonded terminal operators, Mr. Ken Ofurum and Aare Haruna Omolajomo, painted this pathetic picture at an interaction with the media in Lagos recently.

They maintained that the hike is not sympathetic to Nigerians as the costs of essential goods and services in the open market are no longer affordable. They affirmed that various Customs clearance tools, including the B’Odogwu, and lately, the National Single Window introduced by the Federal Government, lack human face.

While lamenting the disruption in the cargo clearance caused by the National Single Window, the freight forwarders noted that many cargoes are now stuck in the ports because the Window has failed to work.

“Our problem is, we are no longer in business. Many of our importers are no longer importing as they used to because of the hike. Even those who still manage to import, do so below their capacities.

“Freight forwarding is a global business but its local content is jealously controlled and reserved for the indigenes. We are amazed at the uncontrolled rate at which foreigners, especially Chinese, have penetrated our industry. They have taken over our business,” Ofurum lamented.

While commending the Federal Government over the reduction in car tariffs, the freight forwarders were emphatic that such reduction should be extended to all imports, to make living bearable for Nigerians while also counseling a recalibration of the National Single Window.

On the influx of foreigners into freight forwarding, they called on the federal government to protect Nigerian operators and come up with a deliberate policy on the local content of the business.

They charged the management of the Nigeria Customs Service to further improve on its engagement with freight forwarders and customs agents in the area of training. “The Customs is currently conducting training on AI for the purpose of revenue generation without inviting freight forwarders and customs agents, they have only invited National Assembly members and politicians. Who collect this revenue for the Customs? It is the freight forwarders and customs agents. They did not invite us because they do not consider us as relevant partners,” noted Ofurum.

On the sorry state of bonded terminal business, the two freight personalities regretted that bonded terminals have collapsed totally owing to the arrogance and non cooperation of operators in the mother port who have defiantly refused to stem containers to the offdock facilities.

“Even we play a dual role. In as much as we are bonded terminal operators, we are also freight forwarding agents. The bonded terminal business has collapsed. Lagos presently has over 70 to 80 bonded terminals. But there is none that is being utilised up to 15 or 20 percent capacity. The rest are merely football playing grounds. All the cargo is stuck there in the mother port,” noted Ofurum.

Omolajomo noted that the port concessionaires have created another corridor to make their concessioned areas a free trade zone. So these three ports – Apapa, Tin Can and Lekki – now are sharing the cargo that would have ultimately come into the bonded terminal.

“Originally, the creation of bonded terminal was to alleviate congestion in the mother port.

“The mother port is only a transit port to bring in the cargo and sail the empty containers. Now you will be hearing that they have ship traffic along the coastal waters up to docking about 70 vessels on the sea. All just need to come in,” Omolajomo explained.

Nigeria’s major ports in Lagos and Eastern zone were concessioned to private operators with the bulk of throughputs yielders taken over by foreign shipping and port terminal moguls in 2006.