• Says Nigerian ports most expensive in West Africa
Citing serial extortion and unhealthy practices, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has threatened to cripple activities at all the nation’s seaports. It had also given the Federal Government 21 days within which to correct the anomalies.
The association gave the warning last Friday after rising from its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, which deliberated largely on challenges of cargo clearance in the ports.
In a statement issued on Friday by its national publicity secretary; Kayode Farinto, ANLCA stated that “its members nationwide will be compelled to withdraw their services, which will shut down the ports, if these pressing issues are not addressed forthwith”.
The association articulated the problems militating against smooth cargo clearance and accused virtually all government agencies of engaging in one form of unhealthy practice or the other.
“The Nigeria Customs Service, as the prime statutory agency at the ports engage in a practices that are tantamount to approbating and reprobating. The Nigeria Customs Service issues the Pre -Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), undertakes the assessment and subsequently release of cargoes from the ports, with the multiplicity of units in the clearance chain which are unnecessarily encumbered by incessant alerts and arbitrary jack up of customs duties which is not in compliance with the international valuation principles (which is in the general Agreement on Tariff and Trade (Article VII GATT) as domesticated into valuation Acts) and then constitute units that intercept the same duly exited cargoes within 500 meters radius of the ports”, it said.
The association also alleged that ports concessionaires engage in arbitrary increase of terminal charges without recourse to the port concession agreement, which according to them, states that, stakeholders must be consulted before such increase are made.
According to ANLCA, “shipping agencies which ordinarily are the local representative of the shipping lines also engage in arbitrary increase and introduction of multiple charges outside the approval by the Nigerian Shippers Council”.
The association also accused the Police of having abandoned their statutory responsibilities of providing security at the port. Its personnel now engages in “stoppage of cargo delivery at shipping companies and terminals under the guise of conducting investigation”.
The ANLCA also noted that the activities of the Police , shipping companies and terminal operators have emboldened others to also imbibe the "must settle me" syndrome. The “DSS, NDLEA, Plant Quarantine, etc have exacerbated the corrupt tendencies in the maritime industry”, the association alleged.
They also accused the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) of abandoning its responsibilities of ensuring that fake or sub-standard goods don’t enter into the country. According to ANLCA, “SON, although with a lofty and patriotic agenda of minimising the entry of sub -standard goods into the country, appears to have abandoned its statutory role of a regulator and is now a revenue generating agency through imposition of high charges for her services”.
The association disclosed that, after its National Executive Council meeting, it has come to the conclusion that the activities of the government agencies and private organizations mentioned above are inimical to trade facilitation and does not conform with international best practices which has made Nigerian ports to be the most expensive, within the West African sub region”.
Discussion about this post