The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has backed the recent call by the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) for the movement of overtime cargoes to the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, so as to decongest the Lagos Ports.
In a chat with our correspondent, the Chairman of NAGAFF, Ikorodu Chapter; Mr Obinna Okafor described the call by the president of NCMDLCA, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, as a welcome development, while adding that the movement of the overtime cargoes to the customs warehouse will prevent the diversion of cargoes to eastern port thereby saving importers other expenses of moving diverted cargoes from the eastern port back to Lagos.
Recall that the President of NCLDMA in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari and a copy made available to newsmen, stated that the Kirikiri Lighter Port has four empty terminals that can accommodate 15,000 loaded containers, which will ease the congestion in Lagos and shift some of the pressure from Apapa and Tin can to Kirikiri port area.
According to the NAGAFF Chairman Ikorodu, moving the overtime containers to Kirikiri will be a step in right direction while noting that movement of cargoes by barges to Ikorodu is still more cost-effective, he thereby urged the men of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to work closely with the terminal operators in ensuring the movement of cargoes by barges to any of the government warehouse is ensured.
According to him, “Tthe call for the movement of cargoes to Kirikiri it’s a good one it is a step in right direction, if the space is there they can move it there, is still government warehouse, it’s not a must the overtime cargoes should be taken to Ikorodu, once there is a customs warehouse in Kirikiri that is not under the custody of any shipping or terminal operator, because it has to be under the custody of customs like the Ikorodu government warehouse, to avoid going through another shipping company or terminal to get the container.
“However, the movement by barge to Ikorodu is still cost effective but the fact is that the customs should try and work with the terminal operators to be able to move these cargoes to Ikorodu. I don’t understand what is delaying the customs; we will need them to fasten this movement in less than one month.
“More so, the movement of this overtime cargoes to any of these government warehouse will prevent cargoes diversion to eastern port thereby saving importers of extra cost of moving their cargoes to the eastern port”.
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