There are indications that major shipping terminals in Lagos; Ports and Terminal Multipurpose Limited (PTML) and the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal (KLT) are gradually going moribund even as major freight forwarding associations have confirmed that PTML terminal and KLT Phase 2 and Phase 3 are totally empty.
There are indications that major shipping terminals in Lagos; Ports and Terminal Multipurpose Limited (PTML) and the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal (KLT) are gradually going moribund even as major freight forwarding associations have confirmed that PTML terminal and KLT Phase 2 and Phase 3 are totally empty.
The associations; Association of Registered Freight Forwarders (AREFFN) Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) took turns to explain to Shipping Position Daily that the dwindled fortunes of the terminals was caused by the auto policy by the Federal Government as well as the poor state of the port access roads.
Chairman of KLT Chapter of AREFFN, Comrade Jude Chukwuka told Shipping Position Daily in Lagos yesterday that KLT is practically dead.
He demanded that the Professor Sylvester Monye-led monitoring committee on performance and evaluation should come up with an idea of how to decongest the roads permanently.
"Whatever that is worth doing at all is worth doing well, when the committee was on ground, the traffic was not bad like this, because they can tow your vehicle if you park wrongly, I believe if they come back it will be nice, there is no way we can make a headway without it"
"I am a chairman in KLT and I can tell you that phase 3 is empty, Brawal itself is empty, there are many places empty at KLT because the people that are working there do not have a way to freight their cargoes to KLT because of the roads"
Chukwuka demanded for the use of badges to move containers from Tin Can port and other areas to KLT. According to him, if these are on ground, within 48 hours a vessel discharges, the cargo will be received at KLT.
He confirmed that most of the custom officers at the terminal are presently redundant because there is nothing to do.
Buttressing this, Deputy National President of NAGAFF, Mr. Ugochukwu Nnadi who operates at the PTML terminal confirmed that customs officers at the command now have little or nothing to do because cargo importation to the terminal has dropped.
According to him, this will have an effect on the revenue of the customs because importers are no longer bringing in vehicles through Nigerian ports. "If not that people were caught unawares, the revenue customs made in June wouldn't have come" he said.
"As at May 2014, somebody called me that he wants to withdraw his vehicle from the port and he was asked to pay US$1,000 on each car, this is to show you that importation is dropping by the day"
"The 35% is unbearable, can Nigeria produce heavy duty trucks and cranes? But these are all involved in the policy, I don't think we can produce a crane in the next twenty years, the people that made the policy just wanted money to finance 2015 elections, but they will be disappointed because its already killing the industry".
Nnadi said that, as a result of lack of cargoes, the trucks that have left the port are not coming back, "To them it’s a blessing because they are just hanging along the road, the customs are just idling away" he said
On his part, Image Maker of the PTML chapter of ANLCA, Mr. Gani Adeola told Shipping Position Daily that, prior to the current position of things, not less than 80 containers were usually examined everyday by the customs, but this has dropped drastically to 10 containers per day.
He also stated that the number of vessels calling at the PTML terminals has reduced from two vessels per day to one vessel for a whole week. If not checked, the situation according to him might lead to mass loss of jobs by PTML staff.
"Formerly we position at least 80 containers for examination daily, but now it is less than 10, and when you talk of other general cargoes, there is nothing again in our shed, the policy has started biting seriously, as time goes on, Grimaldi will start to lay off their staff, because they cannot be paying you when you have nothing to do"
"Formerly, Grimaldi usually report two vessels per day, but now it is hard for them to report one vessel in a week, as time goes on they will be having one vessel in a month, one vessel in three months, you cannot expect any vessel to come down to Nigeria empty" he said.
"For us the custom brokers, the crowd at the port is no longer, there because there is nothing to do", he lamented.
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