The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has advised the management of one of the terminal operators, Five Star Logistics, on the need to install Close Circle Television (CCTV) cameras in their terminals.
The association advised that installing CCTV cameras will put an end to the recent cases of vandalism of imported vehicles at some terminals,
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of NAGAFF; Mr Stanley Ezenga, who gave this advise in an interview with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week, also lauded the terminal operator in the area of charges, saying that the terminal are more customer friendly than other terminals in the country.
As against the accusations that the terminal has deviated from their core mandate which is Roll On Roll Off (RORO), he said that the terminal has the capacity of handling both RORO and general cargo.
“Five Star charges lower charges than others the only area they need to improve on is that the area of vehicle vandalism. Because at PTML you cannot remove even a pin, unlike Five Star, Five Star still operate with that old NPA mentality. They should look into the areas of installing CCTV cameras and employing appropriate security to monitor their terminals”
The NAGAFF image maker however advised the 9th National Assembly on the need to ensure that newer vehicles come into the country, even as he stressed on the health disadvantages of the emissions that come from the older vehicles.
He also maintained that placing lower duties on newer vehicles will also help to promote a cleaner environment.
He said: “With this, all these rickety vehicles will no longer come into the country, with that we would have a cleaner environment, don’t also forget that the older the vehicle the more emission it produces to the atmosphere; which is dangerous to health. While the newer vehicles have this catalyst converter which reduces the harmfulness of the emission”
“The area I want them to look into is the age limit of imported used vehicles and the duty. Let the newer vehicles pay lower duties than the older vehicles, age limit may not be all that important. If a 2005 model of vehicle pay about N1million for duty and 2018 model of the same vehicle pays the same duty people will never like to go for the older vehicle they will go for newer ones since the duty rates are considerable”, he stressed.
Explaining further he said, “So they should focus on the reduction of duty rates for newer vehicles and lower the age limit of these vehicles, if they can really make it 20 years it doesn’t matter”
“If you can bring an old vehicle and pay duty as high as N10million for example and still pay the same duty on new vehicles I am telling you that nobody will go for that old vehicle. We are looking at the end result what is the landing cost of this vehicle on the Nigerian soil” he concluded.
