Shippers operating in the nation’s maritime sector have decried soaring port charges, exchange rate fluctuations, among others, adding that the charges are driving the cost of doing business in Nigeria to unsustainable levels.
This is even as they said that these challenges pose serious challenges to cargo clearance at the ports.
The former President of the Shippers Association, Lagos State, Jonathan Nicol, stated this in a chat with journalists recently in Lagos.
He added that the situation has made it difficult for them to clear their goods or repay loans sourced from banks.
“You take a loan of N50m to import goods, but by the time your cargo gets here, you spend over N150m just to clear it. Where do you find the money to repay the bank?” he queried.
He attributed the crisis to Nigeria’s faulty import adjustment policies and the hikes in the port terminal and shipping charges.
Nicol also stressed that demurrage on a 40-foot container has soared by over 200 percent per day, with many shippers unable to raise the additional funds required to clear goods.
“Where will an importer get that kind of money to pay? So they are abandoning cargoes, and banks are chasing them for unpaid loans,” Nicol added.
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