By Steve Agbota
Following the incessant increase in Customs exchange rate for clearance of imported items at the seaports and airports, Nigerian importers are now shunning Nigerian seaports for sea teminals in Tema, Ghana; Port of Lome, Togo and Port of Cotonou, Benin Republic.
The decision to dump Nigerian seaports was as a result of the incessant increase in exchange rate for cargo clearance by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Also, clearing agents said importation into the country has dropped by 35 per cent from 40 per cent, as business activities slumped.
According to a frontline clearing agent, Olubayo Akinlosotu, between 60 to 80 containers are dropped daily for examination as against 200 to 250 dropped in 2023.
The CBN, on June 24, 2023 adjusted the exchange rate from N422.30/$1 to N589/$1 and on July 6, 2023 it was adjusted to N770.88/$1. On November 14, 2023, it climbed to N783.174/$1. On December 7, 2023, it was adjusted to N951.941/$1 and on Friday, February 2, 2024, exchange was pegged at N1,356.883/$1. Within 24 hours, it climbed to N1,413.62/$1.
However, confirming the development to Daily Sun Akinlosotu, said importers are leaving the country in droves, saying as cargoes will now be smuggled into the country through the nation’s porous borders.
He stated that the abandonment of Nigerian ports was basically because of high foreign exchange rate.
“If these importers bring goods to neighbouring ports, we all know that 80 per cent of them will ended up in Nigerian market either through smuggling or any other means of shipping. The implication is that it is the government that will lose at the end,” he said.
Speaking with Daily Sun, the National President of the National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero, tagged the recent happening ‘importers Japa’.