Some aggrieved freight agents have threatened to withdraw their services from Nigerian seaports as a result of multiple exorbitant and arbitrary charges by shipping companies which sees them lose N50million daily.
Freight forwarders under the aegis of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), made this known in a letter addressed to all shipping companies in the country.
According to the letter signed by the National Coordinator of the NAGAFF 100% Compliance Team, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko, the letter serves as a notification ahead of their plan to withdrawal their services.
The group itemized several complaints on extortion via depletion of container deposit refunds, detention invoice, and an undue debiting of their clients (shippers).
“Unnecessary extortion of our importers up to N150,000 before dropping empty containers; then they pass it back to us before giving us our container cards. Network issue also leads to raising invoice, sending TDOs, among other issues and we are losing N10 million per day,” the letter stated.
The group also condemned the deceitful demand of opening importers account/ extortion before releasing invoice transfer of containers against the wish/ consent of the consignee, “this is a dubious move aimed at extorting money from us, and we are losing over N50million per day.”
“As a result of your negligence or lack of capacity, you impose on us undue equipment detention charges ranging from N200,000 per 1×40ft and N100,000 ×1×20ft multiplied by over 1000 containers per day. Our transporters should be paid by way of compensation for using their trucks as a holding bay for days and weeks,” the group said.
However, the group posited that its members are no longer going to be induced or coerced into arresting transporters over misunderstandings bordering on missing containers etc.
“Against this background, want to notify that from the October 25th, 2021 to November 10th, /2021, if these issues raised above are not properly addressed; we will withdraw our services. It has come to our knowledge that these shipping lines are not interested in the welfare of freight forwarders nor Nigerians, hence none of them have investment in Nigeria. All of them are on rent. To be forewarned is to be forearmed,” the team stated.
