Femi Tope (clearing agent)
The federal government is to blame for the chargesbecause under normal circumstance, Nigerian ports belong to the federal government and should not be owned by any individual.
Alternatively, they might be owned by some group of people that are responsible and are concerned with the masses. To my surprise, the federal government lease all benefit of the whole nation to some people whom I think will enrich their purses before thinking of other people.
The arbitrary charges by terminal operators are not their fault, they don’t have enough equipment and spaces to enable them discharge their duties correctly.
Okunowo Oladipo (Assistant Manager Billing, Ports & Cargo)
Arbitrariness is not the issue here and if there are complaints as regards this, I am sure Ports and cargo is not charging arbitrarily. Our tariff is open to the public to see, and it’s not different from what NPA has given. When you talk about charging arbitrarily, I want to set an instance of a man that requested for our tariff, which I believe as a clearing agent he wants to confirm, if his staff that work for him are cutting corners. Also another man who was trying to create scene out of stupidity saying he was charged unnecessary on his goods that have come, but when he got things right he said he never knew it was meant to be the amount that should be charged. These are enough evidences to show we don’t charge arbitrarily, and when the agents are talking about arbitrary charges, they should try and give details of what they meant by that word.
Akanni Balogun (Clearing agent)
They wanted profit, but before the charges are placed, there is a statutory body to be in place. Take for instance the Nigerian Shippers’ Council which the government has chosen to monitor charges, but they are not performing.
If they want to, they should call stakeholders and importers to give reasons why these are happening. Right now, they are block staking and delaying our work, we can’t do examination and this makes our consignments to acquire demurrage.
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council should be more alive to their responsibilities, but if it continues, freight forwarders will react and it will affect the economy and it will cause increase in prices of goods and services.
Nwafor Okonmah (Importer)
I don’t intend to pass the blame on anyone, I believe the terminal operators are doing their duties and if there is any issue of incompetence, its on the rent they charge when the ship has departed, because my agent complains that the charges are too many. So that should be looked into.
Importers should also do what is right and when we intend to complain, we should specify and know what we are talking about, as this will go a long way in helping us tackle some issues affecting both agents, terminal operators, bonded terminals and shipping companies.
Regulatory agencies should be there to monitor.
Tunde Owati (Clearing agent)
To an extent, they have good intentions compared to our experience with NPA as far as services provided are consigned. They are faster in delivery to some extent but some are lagging behind in the area of delivery so I believe if they can improve and have good and sufficient number of working equipments, then it would be a mission accomplished on their part. The irony is that their inefficiency is been transferred to the agent whereby cargoes are incurring demurrage. Nigeria Shippers’ Council should come in, so that when it happens the blame won’t be on agents.
Alh. Lawal Muftau (MALM Associates)
The terminal operators are just collecting our money, they don’t have functioning equipments, the service they render is poor, and they use the opportunity they get to extort people because all their containers are all in block stacking. The government should do something, we are not gaining anything.
If the terminal operators know they are not getting any thing, they should leave and allow other people come in, they are working below expectations.
Transporters that help carry containers charge =N=30,000 before but now they charge =N=50,000, because of their experience with terminal operators when they intend to load and we are been extorted in this regards, something should be done.
Taiwo Oloyede (Clearing agent)
The terminal operators are to be blamed for arbitrary charges, we are not allowed to go into their terminal to see our goods, and we are not allowed to go into monitor it unlike in the days of NPA and our goods are vandalized at times.
Before, we were given say like five days free to clear our goods, now its three days after the ship has departed and they wont position your containers which will be on block stacking and it will incur demurrage and with the experience from the terminal operators at the moment, I don’t think we cant operate on the 48hours cargo clearance, so something should be done.
Amadi Ben (freight forwarder)
Generally, the regulatory bodies are to be blamed for these charges and they are aware of all that is going on, more so they know how best to tackle it.
The terminal operators are enjoying monopoly. The agents don’t know how to fight for their right; their associations are not doing their job well, because they lack professionalism.
Mrs. Elizabeth. Babarinde (Commercial Manager, ENL)
The bills are per approved tariffs; there are not arbitrary charges. Most charges are what NPA was collecting as ship and cargo dues, while concessionaires have statutory charges as approved.
It’s only when they talk about rent that we charge on our own and we collect these charges in order not to make the ports a dumping ground or warehouse. When they want to talk about arbitrary charges, they should be specific as to what they are talking about in order to enable us make headway out of the whole issue.
Finally, agents don’t know the difference between terminal operators, bonded terminal operators and shipping companies and our charges are not the same. The shipping charges from shipping agents are not from us, they have to pay shipping agents before coming to us these; are the issues at stake.
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