The Association of Nigeria Customs License Agent (ANLCA), has thrown its full weight behind the move of the 100% Compliance Team of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders,( NAGAFF) to curtail the excesses of the shipping companies in Nigeria which are inimical to ease of doing business.
It would be recalled that the NAGAFF 100% Compliance Team had issued a notice of withdrawal of services of freight forwarders from all shipping lines from November 10, 2021 until their demands are met..
The National Vice President of ANLCA Dr. Kayode Farinto, who made this statement while fielding questions from Journalists in Lagos assured that the association will collaborate with NAGAFF to fight the injustice of the shipping companies.
Dr. Farinto accused them of extorting Nigerian importers and freight forwarders through clearance charges and other illegal and arbitrary charges, and attributed this criminal act to rising cost of cargo clearance in Nigeria.
”Before now ‘am one of those that say that various shipping companies in Nigeria or shipping Reps have been extorting Nigeria importers and Freight Forwarders. There was even a time where there was ECOWAS West African Congestion charges slam on Nigeria bound cargos.
”Also I talked about clearing charges, why will you charge my importers for clearing of my container knowing fully well that everything is actually encompassing in the issue of Freight charges? So there are too many charges that are illegal and arbitrary as regards the various shipping companies and we have also been raising this, we have challenged them.
”The issue of detention charges is another one, where they are milking Nigerians ”We have your container, we are unable to deliver the container, the empty container is on truck, you are charging importers , you are depleting their container deposit and these are criminal tendencies which we have actually been saying, so is not as if we have not been talking about it, we have been shouting. We have written series of letter to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, pointing out this illegal and arbitrary charges which is actually making cost of cargo clearance very very exorbitant in Nigeria,” he said.
On the response of the Shippers’ Council to their letters of complaints, Farinto said, ”the response has been that we will look into it. There was a time during the era of Barrister Hassan Bello where he actually called for a meeting to see what was going to be the way forward and I think that was when he insisted that they should expunge clearing charges from their debt note,
”There are too many charges in our debit note which the shipping companies are just smiling to the bank, I even proposed to the Shippers’ Council that before this shipping registration will repatriate there money, they need the approval of Shippers Council to do that. We told them,.do not give them approval, let us sit down and look at most of the illegitimate charges and arbitrary charges that they are slamming on Nigerian importers but up till now nothing has been done about it. So, it is very unfortunate
Asked if Shippers’ Council is failing in its duties, the ANLCA Chieftain said, ”Well I wouldn’t want to use the word failing but they have not been performing their duty optimally and don’t also forget that Shippers’ Council too has a lot of challenges here and there. They do not have the political will , Remember about a year ago when the Nigerian Shippers’ Council insisted that all these illegal charges amounting to over one billion naira should be paid back to the Nigerian portal, All they did was to run to the bank and to court, as I am talking to you now, this case is still in court and has not been responded to, so you might not really blame the Nigerian Shippers Council .So is not as if they have not been doing anything, they have.
”We told you about few weeks ago that all the associations are coming together to speak with one voice. I tell you authoritatively, if NAGAFF is shutting them down will also be joining at picketing them, so we are speaking with one voice and that is the only way forward.
”In Nigeria, I have now seen that, if you do not result to self help, you may not get our result, there are too many legitimate charges in our industry. Everyday we are loosing cargo to neighbouring countries, nobody seems to want to help us we are the ones suffering it, as I am talking to you now, all CEO’s are rationalizing, we are reducing our staffs because the cargo is no more coming in as it used to before.
”We are loosing cargo to neighbouring countries, so if I had 30 staffs before, I have reduced them to 10 and you know what that means. The people that you are laying off they are also going into labour market, so we do not have the choice than to protect the very few ones that are with us seeing now that they are not slammed with illegitimate chargers. So, if NAGAFF said they are going on strike, even though we are employers of labour, we will join NAGAFF picket them and tell our staff not to go for any release at shipping company that day, so we are going to join NAGAFF. We are no longer going to talk where NAGAFF is saying A and ANLCA will be saying B. We are coming together to fight formidably so that for once, the Nigerian shippers will enjoy the dividends of democracy they have never been enjoying.
Photo: DR. Kayode Farinto, National Vice President of ANLCA
