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Some group of Nigerian importers have in the recent time drawn the Federal Government’s attention to the need to put hold the transfer of overtime containers to off-dock facilities especially Ikorodu Lighter Terminal (IKLT) in Lagos.
According to them, the cost of doing business in the terminal was on the high side when factoring losses and damages to some cargoes taken to the terminal in the past. The importers, who were of the opinion that the nation’s seaports are presently operating below capacity, pointed the present economic downturn that has created emptiness in the nation’s seaports as the reason the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) need to put cargo transfer on hold.
Also, the current emptiness in the seaports has created spaces and rooms for more of such containers to be accommodated in the seaports where the security of the multi-billion naira worth of imported overtime consignment that were usually transferred to Ikorodu could be effectively taken care of.
Godwin Onyekazi, president of the Nigerian Importers Integrity Association Importers (NIIA), a frontline importers’ association, who frowned at the tradition of transferring overtime containers to the Ikorodu, said the maritime sector suffered a huge blow in 2016 given the high rate of foreign exchange vis-a-vis th decline in cargo volume.
The current economic situation Onyekazi added has not only drained the seaports such that businesses around the ports have closed down as an extension of low business, but has also eliminated the need to transfer overtime
containers.
“Port congestion was the reason for transfer of containers but the present economic downturn has resulted in less than 40 percent yard occupancy in most terminals and has overruled the need for transfer overtime cargo to Ikorodu,” he said. Moving overtime containers, he observed, is also a means to boycotting terminal procedures as owners of the containers avoid payment of the accrued terminal charges, thereby encouraging importers to abandon their cargo at the port with the aim of facilitating movement to Ikorodu to avoid charges. He said that this also results to complete loss of revenue to terminal operators as the transfer allows importers to take the cargo without paying terminal handling cost despite the costs incurred by operators that have financial obligations to the government.
He added that the transfer will only result in huge additional cost burden to government given that the logistics cost of moving the containers from the port to Ikorodu will be borne by the NPA.
“This is additional container handling which comes with increased cost of doing business for terminal operators; as well as likely claims from damages. There is an existence of risk of loss of cargo by the consignee/importer due to
allegations of diversion of cargo on transit from previous transfers and pilfering over insecurity,” he added.
In his view, Emma Nwabunwanne, a Lagos based importer said that importers whose containers were transferred to Ikorodu, had in several cases suffered serious economic loss due to damages imposed on the goods in the containers as a result of double handling of the container.
According to him, the NPA needs to reduce the rate at which it transfers cargo to Ikorodu given the present economic downturn that has emptied the port creating space for overtime cargo.
“Reducing the rate of cargo transfer would also limit the stress importers of such consignment pass through to clear their goods at the end.” Recall that the Senate in November 2016 said that transferred containers worth
billions of naira have been abandoned to rot away daily at Ikorodu; alluding to the fact that inadequate maintenance measures exist for the containers there.
Therefore, moving even more containers will result in a sharp decline in the condition of containers and cargo.”
