From right: National Coordinator, Compliance Team of NAGAFF, Tanko Ibrahim, National Vice President, ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto, National President, NAGAFF, Tochukwu Ezesi, Deputy National President, NAGAFF, Simeon Nwonu and one other member of the Steering Committee of the five registered associations during a press briefing on Wednesday in Lagos.

A dialogue between Freight Forwarders and shipping companies convened by the Council for Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria CRFFN to resolve issues of alleged imposition of illegal demurrage charges and delay in refund of container deposit held in Apapa, Friday has been deadlocked.

Recall that the five registered freight forwarding associations comprising Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents ANLCA, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders NAGAFF, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents NCMDLCA, Association of Registered Freight Forwarders ARFF and National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators NAFFAC had penultimate week given the shipping lines up to November 10, 2021, which was later extended to November 18 to address these issues or face withdrawal of service.

The dialogue, tagged Executive Session was in continuation of a series of earlier meetings convened by the CRFFN to harmonise the positions of all parties, which regrettably was deadlocked as parties could not reach a common ground, especially on the commencement time for demurrage charges on empty containers.

National Coordinator of the NAGAFF Compliance Team, Alhaji Tanko Ibrahim, who briefed newsmen on behalf of the other four associations shortly after the executive session, disclosed that three issues comprising container deposit and demurrage, network failures and the inability of some shipping lines to establish holding bays were tabled for discussions and resolution.

While regretting that the other two issues were never discussed at all due to time constraint, shipping lines refused the proposal by the freight forwarders that the grace period for demurrage on empty containers should be for 14days and it should start from when the consignment exits the seaport gate while the shipping firms insisted on six days as soon as the Terminal Delivery Order TDO was issued.

He noted that there have been cases where containers spend additional one week at the terminal even after the TDO had been issued due to logistic challenges on the part of the terminal operators, arguing that it would be unjust to make the freight forwarders and their principals, the importers pay for delays caused by the terminal operators and sometimes the shipping companies themselves.

“We accepted to pay N200, 000 deposit for an empty container but the demurrage cannot start counting for us even when the laden container is still within the ports for no fault of ours. There were also suggestions that the container deposit payment should be scrapped but others also argued that it would lead to neglect and loss of the empty containers”, he said.

On the issue of jacking up the value of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report PAAR, which determines the value of duty paid on any consignment to N1.5million and N3million for 20ft and 40ft containers respectively, he noted that the Compliance Team would investigate it so as to have evidence after which it would petition the Comptroller in charge of PAAR or the Deputy Comptroller General in charge of Trade and Tariff at the Nigeria Customs Service headquarter, Abuja.

He said: “We will not allow any attempt to increase the value on the PAAR, which Customs claimed was due to fluctuations in the exchange rate because that would amount to benchmarking the value of the products since we know that somethings are cheaper in some markets because of other factors.

“For instance in Lagos here, everyone knows that it is cheaper to buy things in Boundary Market in Ajegule than in Ikoyi or Victoria Island probably because of the cost of renting shops in those places. Also think about buying things from Shoprite and local street side markets, so it is an established fact in trade that a particular product could attract different prices so we will not agree to benchmarking of value.

“Some people, I don’t want to mention their names, also alleged that when it comes to issues about shipping companies and terminal operators that I fight like a mad dog and when it comes to Customs I do not because they allegedly gave me money but I know that this is not true but we will investigate the PAAR issues to gather credible evidence for our petition”.

He also warned the media from writing reportd based on rumours and misinformation by some stakeholders without properly investigating them, citing the instance of Chief Ofobike, who alleged that he Tanko was intimidating officers of Customs and collecting bribes from them.

While insisting that he must get Ofobike, who peddled such rumour in the past and later apologised and begged him for forgiveness to provide evidence, having also mentioned the name of the founder of NAGAFF this time, swore that he would not allow the matter to be swept under the carpet, as he must be made to provide evidence to prove this allegation.

He assured that the coming together of the registered associations was what the operators needed to fight their course, insisted that many are opposed to this unity since it serves their selfish interests for the freight forwarders to continually speak with dissenting voices on issues that affect members’ interest and wellbeing.