Coordinator, NAGAFF Compliance Team, Alhaji Tanko Ibrahim

Nigerian freight forwarders have issued a fresh notice, to withdraw their services from the nation’s seaports over worsening cases of extortion and imposition of illegal and arbitrary charges on their clients; the importers and transporters. The freight forwarders have given the shipping companies up to November 14, 2021 to resolve all issues related to extortion and imposition of illegal charges or face service withdrawal by them.

The group had earlier issued a two-week strike notice, which took effect from October 27 to November 10, 2021 to multinational shipping lines operating in the country over what they described as multitudes of complaints bothering on extortion and several other forms of imposition of illegal charges on their clients, the importers and transporters.

Also recall that the shipping firms had decided to stay away from two different peace meetings convened by the Nigerian Shippers Council NSC and the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding practice in Nigeria CRFFN last week to resolve the impasse.

Coordinator of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders NAGAFF Compliance Team, Alhhaji Tanko Ibrahim, who spoke with newsmen after the meeting convened by the CRFFN in Lagos at the weekend, said he was sad over the turn of events around the proposed withdrawal of service by the freight forwarders, given that the shipping lines snubbed both the Shippers Council and the CRFFN.

According to him, the decision to extend the ultimatum, which takes effect from today, November 1, 2021-November 14, 2021 was informed by the instruction that the freight forwarders would be told the outcome of the meeting convened by Shippers Council, adding that the shift was to give everybody a benefit of the doubt.

He also said that he was even more saddened by the seeming power tussle between the NSC and the CRFFN, which has crystalised in the holding of two meetings at different venues on one issue and on the same day at a time both agencies should be working in one accord, which makes the matter worse and more complicated.

While expressing deep pain and frustration at the rate at which Nigerian importers and transporters are being cheated and extorted in their own home country, the Coordinator said that the matter is worsened by the fact that the foreign shipping lines do these things and get away with them.

While fielding questions from journalists, Ibrahim said: “I am very sad because Nigerians have been made slaves in their own home. We have reached out to many organs and agencies of the Federal Government so they would come to our aid, but it seems no one wants to give any thought to our predicaments.

“We wrote to the Senate Committee on Customs, Minister of Transport, Shippers Council, CRFFN, which regulates the freight forwarders and the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, among several others and we believe we have followed the due process of law in declaring such notice to withdraw our services.

He assured that the freight forwarders and their clients, the importers and transporters in making good their threat would just stay away from the ports environment so that the exercise would be as peaceful as possible, a development stakeholders fear would worsen the congestion at various terminals across seaports in Lagos.

Some of the decisions reached at the meeting convened by the CRFFN include that representatives of the shipping companies must be made to attend the next meeting to be held on a yet to be agreed date and time and that the freight forwarders should pause the proposed strike action.

Parties also agreed that the CRFFN should synergise with the NPA and the Nigeria Customs Service with a view to strengthening the enforcement of the laws that protect the interest of freight forwarders but that they should in turn be patient with the new Information Technology introduced by some of the shipping lines. The freight forwarders should also automate their operational processes to be in tune with global developments.

Stakeholders also agreed that the freight forwarders and their clients, the importers and transporters should not be made to bear the cost of down time in the operations of the shipping companies and that NPA should ensure that freight forwarders should not be made to suffer due to the inadequacy of container holding bays, the issue of transfer of containers to some bonded terminals without the consent of the freight forwarders should urgently be reviewed.

The stakeholders also agreed that the payment of un-receipted N100, 000 by freight forwarders, importers and transporters before they are allowed to drop their empty containers with immediate effect.