Coming on the heels of numerous complaints emanating from importers and clearing agents, the Nigeria Shippers’ Council has charged port terminal operators to upgrade their facilities and purchase new cargo handling equipment.
The Council noted that this is necessary so as to meet the increasing cargo throughput at Nigerian ports.
The Executive Secretary of the Council, Barrister Hassan Bello gave the charge last week in Abuja at a media retreat organised by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN).
Coming on the heels of numerous complaints emanating from importers and clearing agents, the Nigeria Shippers’ Council has charged port terminal operators to upgrade their facilities and purchase new cargo handling equipment.
The Council noted that this is necessary so as to meet the increasing cargo throughput at Nigerian ports.
The Executive Secretary of the Council, Barrister Hassan Bello gave the charge last week in Abuja at a media retreat organised by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN).
Bello who was represented by the council’s Chief Operations Officer, Commercial Shipping Services department, Mrs Celine Amaka bemoaned the obsolete cargo handling equipment being used by port concessionaires, even as he added that importers are being made to suffer due to constant system failures.
"It has been ascertained that delays are caused by poor cargo handling, slow logistics and unnecessary bureaucracy as well as system failures", he observed.
"You will see an innocent shipper at the port to pick up his cargo, but he cannot pick it, they will complain that there is a problem with the system and that he has to wait till things are nomalised".
"And as he waits, the charges are escalating, the demurrage is also going up" Bello noted.
He added that most of the terminal operators still need to upgrade their equipment because cargo throughput is increasing on daily basis
According to him; the Council is projecting a higher throughput at the port for 2013.
He also condemned the indiscriminate billing systems by the concessionaires, even as he lamented that this has persisted as a result of the absence of a commercial regulator for the port.
He revealed that when the terminal operators took over operations at the port, there were only six port charges, but this has now increased to 20.
Going further, he said, “terminal operators collect N12,000 per day on container storage, they will give you reasons why they have to charge you for storage or rent, these are primitive charges, ordinarily its suppose to be free".
According to him, Nigerian terminal operators give importers only three days as free periods for storage while other neighboring ports give between seven and 11days for free storage.
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