Importers and their agents are finding it difficult to clear cargoes from the ports as online payment platforms are failing amid scarcity of cash.
They blame this on the naira redesign policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which has compelled many to use bank apps and fintech payment platforms for their transactions. This has put undue pressure on the payment platforms with consequential failed transactions.
“My company paid shipping charges for a 40-foot container last week, which we are clearing for our client at one of the terminals in Tin-Can Island Port. It took about three days for the shipping company to receive the payment before the container was released,” said Tony Anakebe, managing director of Gold-Link Investment Ltd, a Lagos-based clearing and forwarding firm.
Anakebe, who spoke on the phone, said since the CBN policy on the new naira took effect, there has been a slowdown in cargo clearance at the port because it now takes days for shipping and terminal charges to be processed by Customs Licensed Agents online and in the banking halls.
Aside from using various online payments, Anakebe said agents that go physically to the banking halls to make payments are also not finding it easy as many banks are now complaining of several days of network fluctuation and total network failure in some cases.
He said the situation is worsened by the lack of cash in circulation as many agents and importers now use interbank transfers, which in most cases take longer days to either go through or reverse.
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“There is a serious problem and frustration in Nigeria presently. Agents are finding it difficult to clear a container in the port because one needs money to move files from table to table at the port. If you do not have cash at hand, your document will likely remain on one table for days and even weeks, and the longer the delay, the higher the demurrage and storage rent the person will pay,” Emma Nwabunwanne, a Lagos-based importer, told BusinessDay on the phone.
Nwabunwanne, who said that he has been processing the clearance for a 20-foot container in Apapa port, lamented how payment for terminal and shipping charges delayed the container for over five days.
According to him, many shipping companies and terminal operators have migrated to online platforms that used to make it seamless to make payment in the past until the recent collapse of online payment apps and the failure of the bank network.
Nwabunwanne said that he paid close to N100,000 as demurrage and storage rent to the shipping company and terminal operator due to the delay in clearing the container.
He added that clearing cargo in Nigeria’s seaport had always been a challenge but now aggravated by the high rate of payment failure.
On his part, Kazeem Olalekan, another clearing agent, said he made payment for an imported ‘tokunbo’ car but the money was not received by the terminal operator for two days.
“On the third day, I went to the bank and I was told that the money had left my account but the receiving bank was unable to receive the money due to network failure. It took another five days for that issue to be resolved,” Olalekan said.
He said that he not only paid demurrage for the car in question but the delay created distrust between the importer and himself because the importer thought he took the money and refused to deliver the job on the agreed timeline.
Olalekan urged the telecom service providers, fintech companies, and the CBN to work together to resolve the issue in order to reduce the impact on businesses because importers usually push the extra cost to the consumers of the goods.
