- Stakeholders Express Concern Over Influx of Overtime Cargoes
Overtime cargoes have increased with the worsening traffic situation around the Lagos ports access roads and stakeholders are concerned about the trend.
Overtime cargoes are cargoes that have stayed at the port for longer than 28 days without being cleared according to Customs regulations.
The Coordinator, Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders, Chief Osita Chukwu, told our correspondent that many cargoes had fallen into the overtime category because the owners did not have money to clear them.
He said terminals were flooded with overtime cargoes such as Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, the SCOA terminal, Tin Can Island Container terminal, Five Star Logistics, and Ports and Cargo Terminal as well as bonded terminals across the state.
He suggested that the government should auction the cargoes so that the owners could have at least 50 per cent of the proceeds.
Another stakeholder and the Chairman, International Freight Forwarders Association, PTML Chapter, Sunny Nnebe, suggested that the cargoes be auctioned so that the life of the containers could be preserved, saying that containers that had been left idle for a period of up to one year would be subject to damage and constitute loss not only to the owners but the economy.
Overtime cargoes are also taken over by the Nigeria Customs Service after the owner fails to collect them from the shipping terminals.
Meanwhile, the NCS has expressed concern over its inability to move the overtime cargoes in its care to the government warehouse in Ikorodu.
According to the Apapa Area Command of the service, high cost of transportation has prevented the movement of overtime cargoes from the command to the government warehouse in Ikorodu.
The Public Relations Officer of the Command, Nkiru Nwala, was quoted by an online maritime news portal, Ships and Ports, as saying that it cost N550,000 to move a twenty-foot container from Apapa to Jibowu, a suburb of Lagos – a cost which the command could not afford.
Nwala said the Command’s Controller, Abubakar Bashir, was in talks with the Port Manager, Lagos Port Complex Apapa, Aisha Ali-Ibrahim, and terminal operators at the port to support it in moving the overtime cargoes out of the port to avoid port congestion.
She said, “To pick a container from Apapa port to Jibowu is N550,000; so for now, the modalities to get the containers out are being worked out.
“Using barges is not also cheap, some are using train and sometimes you will see that the train breaks down; it is a whole lot of challenges but talks are ongoing. Even for barges, where and where are the clear routes for barges to sail through?
“The controller has met with Nigerian Ports Authority port manager, but the question is who will foot the bill the containers have accumulated? There are some that have been here before the terminal was put on concession. We are gathering the figures on the number of overtime containers.”
Nwala said that compiling the list of overtime cargoes was a complicated issue, saying that there were some clearing agents with genuine cases who finished all necessary clearance but due to the bad road network could not take delivery of their containers.
She said, “We have had a meeting with the NPA. Overtime cargo means after 28 days, but for the past one year, you cannot finish clearing your cargo from the port and for a whole month, you will not get a truck to go in and move it out.”
