Nigeria’s two busiest seaports, the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports are witnessing stepped-up activity as importers and other businessmen rush to take delivery of their consignments ahead of this year’s Christmas holidays.
A visit by BusinessDay to the two commands of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) located in both Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports, revealed tens of clearing agents in the Customs long room with the clearing documents of their principals (importers), trying to undergo the necessary Customs clearing procedures for the release of cargoes.
The most cleared consignments include used vehicles, finished electronics, food items such as rice, wheat and frozen foods, many of which will go into domestic use, wedding ceremonies and parties that usually take place during yuletide season.
Others include fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) such as beverages, shoes and clothing, Christmas trees and lights, bangers, rice, and others. Many of these categories of commodities go into packaging of Christmas gifts, domestic use and decoration of homes as well as public places.
The rush to clear cargo at the seaports is aggravating the traffic situation in the Apapa area of Lagos, where the ports are located, as the high tempo of business activities is currently causing long queues of trucks and other categories of heavy duty vehicles milling to take delivery of containers.
Christopher Amah, a clearing and forwarding agent, blamed the two-week strike embarked on by importers over high shipping and terminal charges in November, for the rush.
Amah further said the delay caused by that strike action made it nearly impossible for importers who shipped in their consignments for Christmas early in November, to be able to clear those goods, before the commencement of the typical timeline of the Christmas rush.
“Though in recent times, Apapa Customs has been helpful by way of extending their cargo clearing hours to include weekends, so as to encourage more importers to take delivery of their consignments, the rush to clear goods which is typical at Christmas, will only die down after the New Year celebration is over,” Amah said.
A Lagos based importer, Emma Nwabunwanne told BusinessDay that the cargo clearing experience at the ports has been cumbersome, and that it took him over a month to clear his consignment at the port.
According to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Shipping Position, 22 ships are expected to come into the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) daily, with 10,854 full loads of containers of different commodities. These include 92,798 million metric tons of bulk rice equivalent to (4,640 bags) to be brought into the port by three ships, while another six vessels are expected to bring in 19,830 metric tons of frozen fish in the next two weeks.
Other cargoes expected to be discharged in the port in the next two weeks include premium motor spirit (PMS), dual purpose kerosene (DPK), automated gas oil (AGO), bulk wheat, bulk sugar, general cargo and other cargoes.
