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By Steve Agbota
Stakeholders operating in the nation’s ports have decried the high cost of clearing cargoes and doing business across the nation’s seaports.
The scathing development was attributed to unstable foreign exchange and scarcity of dollars.
They also said the issue is the reason some importers have left Nigerian ports to that of neigbours, leading to billions of dollars in annual loss.
However, importers and clearing agents lamented that freight cost of shipping a 40ft of container from Asian countries is cheaper than the cost of clearing the same consignment at Nigerian ports.
For instance, it costs between N4 million to N7 million freight a 40ft of container from any Asian country and it costs between N17 million to clear it.
Speaking with Daily Sun, a clearing agent, Adeola Adele, said that Nigerian ports are the most expensive and toxic for importers in West and Central Africa.
“In the last few months, more cargoes have been rerouted to neigbouring countries because our ports are not business friendly. Importers are now going to Cotonou to open business accounts in order to ship their consignments through their port, which is very cost effective and faster,” he said.
He said due to high cost of clearing cargoes, Nigerian port has witnessed massive drop in importation, which is about 30 per cent in the last few months, the lowest ever witnessed in decades.
Also speaking with Daily Sun, the Chief Executive Officer of Uzotex Bonded Terminal, Mr. Festus Mbisiogu, said some Nigerians chose to bring in their goods through the neigbouring seaports because the goods arrived faster and enjoyed quicker clearance.
“The second thing is that freight is cheaper. If the cost of sending a container from China to Apapa seaport is $5,000, to Cotonou it is around $3,500 to $4,000. If the duration of clearing container in Nigeria here is three weeks or two weeks, in Cotonou it’s between four to five days. If you are an importer, what will you do? You will take Cotonou as an option and Nigeria is losing a whole lot to that,” he said.
He lamented that it is difficult for importers to do business at the nation’s ports compared to other neighbouring countries.
“I’m an expert in this field, the cost of clearing a container then was about N7 million but if it is Cotonou, the cost is about N4.5 million. You can see the difference. I’m not advertising Cotonou but this is reality.
“As I speak to you now, the current charges of clearing 40ft container, in fact, the Customs benchmark is about N13 million you must pay. Then the cost of clearing container now has gone up to almost N20 million. You can imagine, that is almost 900 per cent increase. It is difficult for importers to do business,” he lamented.
According to him, for the past few months, Customs duty has been increased so many times, saying there was a protest from.importers because the effect of it is everywhere.
“I as a businessman, I compute everything I spent before bringing that container to my bonded terminal into the cost of the product before I sell it. After clearing that container, before they send it to your terminal, it takes almost two weeks or more than from the seaport to the bonded terminals.
“Secondly, if you look at the Denca road now, for the past 15 years, that road is a death trap and we have about six bonded terminal on tuat road. So many containers have killed people while trying to navigate into bonded terminals. So the environment is harsh. I don’t know why the roads to this bonded terminals are left unattended to. These bonded terminals are helping to decongest the ports. To access these bonded terminals is too difficult. This is the major problem we face,” he said.
