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The Federal Government through the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, said it recovered the sum of N6.1bn from dispute settlements at the ports between 2019 to 2023.
It said a total of N6.1bn was saved and recovered by the council through complaints handling over the five years.
The council explained that within the period under review, it received complaints from regulated service providers and users through the Ports Service Support Portal.
The Director of Strategic Planning and Research of the NSC, Oluwarotimi Anifowoso, disclosed this in Lagos while presenting a paper on the achievements of the council.
He added that the complaints received by the council within the period under review include arbitrary charges, container deposit refunds, and import and export fraud.
Anifowoso added that the council also recovered the sum of N167bn from tariff negotiation, savings from incessant cargo stoppage, and promotion of inland dry port projects in the economy between 2019 to 2023.
Giving details of the funds, he said, “The sum of N153bn was recovered from the impact of the tariff negotiation on the economy within the period under review,”
“Within the period under review, the sum of N10m savings made through the intervention on incessant cargo stoppage and N13.4bn was recovered through the facilitation of inland dry ports arrangement through the public-private arrangement which attracted investment,” Anifowoso stated.
The NSC director maintained that the council’s role as the lead agency in the Nigerian Ports Process Manual has sanitised the activities related to the joint boarding of vessels.
According to Anifowoso, due to the intervention of the council-led Ports Standing Task Team, there has been an increase in the number of cargoes examined per day.
“The number has increased from 120 boxes daily per terminal to an average of 250 boxes daily per terminal,” Anifowoso narrated.
He stated that from March till date, more than 95 per cent of the vessels that called at Nigerian ports and terminals left without any incident.
