Vows to sanction defaulting shipping lines
Nigeria’s Shippers’ Council has ordered a freeze on a price hike by the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), and other shipping lines after industry-wide protests threatened to paralyse port operations and destabilise the nation’s economy.
“Shipping companies, agents, and terminal operators are hereby directed to suspend any intended review of charges until they have duly consulted and engaged their stakeholders,” the Council said in a statement on Tuesday.
The intervention comes as a temporary relief to the trading community, which had been reeling from the January 1 implementation of the new import and documentation rates by the the world’s biggest shipping carrier.
Documents confirmed by BusinessDay revealed that documentation fees for 20-foot containers jumped 30 percent to N58,500 and N93,600 for 40-foots, while port additional charges surged by 60 percent, hitting N160,000 for 40-foot units and N80,000 for 20-foot containers.
Experts warned that the revision could spark a fresh wave of price increases for consumers, as importers race to get return on investment potentially reversing the country’s recent disinflation trend.
Sulaiman Ayokunle of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANCLA), told BusinessDay that importers had already calculated shipment costs using the old rates, relying on those figures to price goods. The sudden increase could disrupt plans, delaying the clearance of goods and causing storage, demurrage and other port charges to accumulate.
Read also: Consumers face higher prices as biggest shipper raises import fees
The situation led to a shut down of business operations at the Apapa office of the Mediterranean Shipping Company on Monday by clearing agents including representatives of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, African Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics, which BusinessDay learned was also supported by the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders.
Agents demanded that activities at the shipping company remain closed from Tuesday until the shipping company reverts to its former charges. The agents were prepared to extend their demonstrations to rival carriers before the Shippers’ Council ordered the suspension.
But the Council is facing scrutiny over its own role in the crisis. Clearing agents told BusinessDay that the Council initially granted MSC approval for the hike without “direct engagement” with stakeholders, a decision they describe as a “breach of policy guidelines.”
The Council, in its statement, however, said that the adjustment was approved “strictly in accordance with its statutory mandate as The Port Economic Regulator,” noting that while it had initially engaged in technical reviews of these tariffs, such discussions did not constitute an “automatic approval.”
It has now vowed to “wield the big stick” and impose sanctions against operators that “proceed with charge reviews without stakeholders’ engagement.”
At the meeting with stakeholders in December only days before the hike was implementes, MSC cited operational costs, including factors like high inflation rates as a rationale for the hike.
As of 2026, MSC remains one of the largest carriers operating in Nigeria, primarily serving the ports of Lagos (Apapa and Tin Can) and Onne (Port Harcourt). According to its website, MSC Nigeria officially moves “more than 200,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) per year.”
