The Federal Government of Nigeria has on Monday ordered the Nigerian
Shippers’ Council (NSC) to carry out a comprehensive audit of all seaport
terminals in the country.
It also expressed dissatisfaction over the arbitrarily high shipping
charges in West and Central Africa sub-region, calling for a downward review of
the charges to promote trade among countries in the sub-region.
The Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo gave the directive in Abuja at the opening
session of a three-day sub-regional summit on ‘Unfair Shipping Surcharges and
High Local Shipping Charges at the Ports of West and Central Africa Sub-region’
hosted by the NSC.
Osinbajo who was represented by the Minister of Transportation, Mr.
Rotimi Amaechi, while telling the participants at the summit that it was
necessary to check the unfair trade practices in the maritime sector, mandated
the NSC to audit the seaports in order to ascertain their efficiency and
competitiveness.
According to him, “The Federal Government has mandated the NSC in her
capacity as the port economic regulator to carry out a comprehensive audit of
all seaport terminals in Nigeria to ascertain their efficiency and
competitiveness.
“Government will ensure that the outcome of the audit report will be
fully implemented for improved port operation. The report of the audit will
also spell out the responsibilities of terminals and the Federal Government.
“Similarly, the council is further mandated to monitor and supervise compliance
to the standard operating procedures by all port agencies and port service
providers for improved service delivery.”
He told participants at the summit that the government was aware of the
disturbing cost of transportation of goods through the ports in the sub-region.
This, he said, was due to high freight rates and arbitrarily imposed surcharges
such as Bunker Adjustment Factor, Currency Adjustment Factor, War Risk
Surcharge, Congestion Surcharge, Peak Season Surcharge and Port Operation
Recovery Surcharge.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian economy is losing N150bn yearly to multiple
surcharges slammed on Nigeria-bound cargoes by foreign shipping companies.
This was contained in the result of a study released in Abuja on Monday,
at a one-day sub-regional summit tagged, ‘Unfair Shipping Surcharges and High
Local Shipping Charges at the Ports of West and Central Africa’, which was
organized by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council under the auspices of the Union of
African Shippers’ Council.
The study indicated that the number of multiple surcharges on
Nigeria-bound cargo and the estimated loss to the Nigerian economy due to
additional ‘Local Shipping Charges’ on imports exceeded N150bn in a year.
The surcharges were listed as bunker adjustment factor; currency
adjustment factor; war risk surcharge; congestion surcharge and peak season
surcharge.
Others are extra risk insurance surcharge, freight rates surcharge
and port operations recovery surcharge.
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