The chairman of Seaports Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), Princess Vicky Haastrup has blamed clearing agents for not taking advantage of the storage free period granted by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
In an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily, Haastrup said contrary to what was being said, a lot of clearing agents who showed up enjoyed the free period, even as she blamed other clearing agents for refusal to take advantage of the demurrage-free grace period.
Explaining how the storage free period worked, she said consignment that were at the seaports before the waiver period was granted by NPA will pay for the numbers of days the consignments were at the port.
According to her, there were storage pending before the waiver period and the charges will not be waived.
Throwing light on the controversy that has been trailing the waiver that was granted and to be underwritten by the NPA, the STOAN boss said: "I think there must be lack of communication here because NPA actually asked us to grant waiver, but I know a lot of agents didn't actually show up, to catch on this waiver that was granted.
"So if they didn't show up, then it's not our fault, but for those who showed up, I think a lot of them did enjoy the waiver.
"Let's also get to clarify this, there are some demurrage that has been pending before the period of the waiver, definitely we won't wave that.
"If for example, the cargo has stayed in the terminal for three weeks, but what you owe before the three weeks, you will definitely pay.
"As at the period of the waiver, what we do is that we will not calculate the period when you are mandated to leave”
"But your previously owed, before that waiver we are not under obligation to waive that."
She explained that, although the terminal operators were given two weeks to grant free waiver, the operators decided to extend the free period by one week just to support the agents and the country at large.
"Don't forget, we were initially given four days to waive and another two weeks; but I can tell you for a lot of us, we didn't stop the waiver until Thursday, we decided to go beyond that period, that I can tell you and I know a lot of agents actually enjoyed the waiver beyond last week”
Reacting to the query that was issued to the terminal operators over the alleged disregards of the directive on waiver, she said: "I think it's just lack of communication gap, between us and NPA,
I have their (NPA) confidence support; I think along the line, we will sort it out, we have never got into argument with NPA, we rarely do that because you know they are landlord, so we have high degree of respect for that institution”
"Everyone was asked to comply and I believe we all comply, I don't know until proven otherwise, but we all agree we will comply and we did comply", she said.
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