Container Deposit: Nigerians Paid N48bn To Foreign Shipping Companies In Three Years-NSC 

4 years ago
Please share
Hassan Bello Backs NSC Staff Cooperative Leadership over Growing of Funds  by 802% | MarimeandEconomy
 Nigerians paid N48bn  as container deposit fees to foreign shipping companies between 2018 and 2020,the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) has said.
Hassan Bello, the Executive Secretary/CEO of the NSC, who lamented the arbitrary charges at a press conference in Lagos,said his agency has collaborated wth the National Insurance Commission (NICOM) with a view to halting the excessive fee  by the close of the second quarter of 2021.
He added:“We at the NSC are currently working towards the removal of the container deposit fee payment by Nigerian importers. It will be removed very soon. We are currently working with the NICOM to see an end to these arbitrary charges. I also have a committee in my office working on this.
“The most annoying aspect of the whole situation is that through no fault of the shipper, he cannot return this container on time. The shipping companies have not provided accessible holding bays for the prompt return of these containers. With the chaotic traffic situation along the ports access roads, in three or two days, the shipper loses its container deposit fees. This is an unfair trade practice.
“We hope that by end of second quarter 2021, we would have gotten all approvals to stop the collection of these container deposits. So, by end of the second quarter 2021, insurance will come in and the shipping companies themselves will be relieved because they own the containers. In shipping, there are so many insurance risks involved, so we are urging insurance firms to come in.
“For example, on nature of insurance and cargo claims, concerning damages to cargo, N387million has been paid by insurance companies on cargo claims. Damages to cargo, cargo loss and others should all be insured. So we are substituting container deposits with insurance cover. We are also having harmonization of tariff nomenclature. Last week, we had a meeting with the Organised Private Sector (OPS), which included the terminals and users of port facilities.
“We are also setting standards for tariffs at container terminals and monitoring compliance. We had to set the standards to monitor the efficiency of the port terminals. Some of the things we used in setting standards for the container terminals are berth occupancy, turn-around time etc. For example, at Five Star Logistics or Tin-Can Island Container Terminal (TICT), they all average 3.7 days of turn-around time for ships. Some other terminals like APM Terminals, Apapa Bulk Terminal Limited (ABTL), Greenview Development Nigeria Limited (GDNL) average four days for ship turn-around time. There are others who average nine and 12 days for vessel turn-around time. We have been asking questions, why is the vessel turn-around time for these terminals taking time?
Please share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.