Freight forwarders under the aegis of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) have given all shipping companies operating in Nigeria two weeks to put an end to actions that result in excessive charges for cargo owners or risk forcing them to withdraw their services.
According to a letter titled, ‘Notification of withdrawal of our services, signed by Ibrahim Tanko, national coordinator of the NAGAFF 100 percent compliance team, and addressed to all shipping companies in Nigeria, this was prompted by multitude of complaints about extortion of freight forwarders by shipping lines.
Tanko listed some of the complaints to include depletion of container deposit refunds, detention of payment invoice and undue debiting of importers and their clients.
He alleged that shipping companies extort from importers as high as N150, 000 per transaction before dropping empty containers. He said this cost is indirectly passed back to freight forwarders.
Read also: Nigeria’s investment rate of return still negative but shrinking
Tanko disclosed that freight forwarders and their clients lose about N10 million daily to issues around network failure, especially during the raising of invoice, sending of terminal delivery order (TDO), among others.
“Shipping lines transfer containers to bonded terminals against the consent or approval of the consignee. This is a dubious move aimed at extorting money, and we are losing over N50 million per day due to this. As a result of your negligence or lack of capacity, shipping lines force on us undue equipment detention charges ranging from N200,000 per one by 40-foot container and N100,000 for one by 20-foot container,” he explained.
He said that shipping companies have from October 25 to November 10, 2021, to address all issues raised. He, however, warned them not to open for operation after November 10, 2021, if the issues remain unaddressed.
Tanko said that transporters should be compensated by shipping lines for using their trucks as a holding-bay for containers for several days and weeks, adding that freight forwarders would no longer arrest transporters over misunderstandings bordering on missing containers.
