As activities at the Kaduna Dry Port gathers momentum, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has warned the Management of ICNL, the operator of the Dry Port and the Federal Government not to allow a replication of the mistakes made at the conception stage of the nation’s seaport in the new facility.
The association which made the call through its National Publicity Secretary (NPS), Dr. Kayode Farinto advised that the dry port should be made to be a viable alternative to the seaport adding that the management of the facility should do all it could to entice the freight forwarders to assist them market the port to their principals.
Farinto warned against the multiplicity of government agencies at the facility as was the case with the nation’s seaports saying that only relevant agencies should be allowed to participate in the examination of cargoes while others not directly connected with cargo clearance could only be invited when they were needed.
He said,” What we have in our system in the port is a complete madness and if care is not taken, it will shorten people’s life. If we now have an alternative that is better, if ICNL Kaduna will be the solution, so be it. I have a cargo that I am clearing that will not come out of the port in the next one month because of too many factors but if I can rail that cargo to Kaduna and I get it cleared under one week before it gets to Kaduna and as soon as it gets to Kaduna, it must leave that place at least in two days and I will now put it back on a truck to Ibadan, is it not better for me? I have saved a lot of costs because in the month that it is here, you are paying demurrages to the shipping companies, you are paying storage to the terminal operators and eventually, God forbid bad thing, that container may leave the port now and it falls on the road because of bad road, my importer will go back to square zero.
“I just mentioned that for the owner of this facility to enjoy what we are saying let him entice agents by way of incentives and we will now being doing the marketing for them. I can’t be doing marketing without knowing how much I will be doing that marketing for even though it is for our advantage.
“I also mentioned the fact that I don’t want a situation where they will replicate what is happening in the port. This should be a model dry port and the only way it can be a model dry port is that I am making my declaration, there is no epileptic power supply, they will not tell me serve is down, that as I am making my declaration, there is an AC or a customs officer that is releasing my cargo and the moment my cargo is released, I go and load my consignment, not that they will tell me that there is another gate officer.
“And I also don’t want a situation where I am clearing vehicle, somebody will say he is NAFDAC, some other person will say he is Plant Quarantine, that he wants to witness my examination. But if I am clearing anything that needs quality control, the owner of the good will invites the relevant stakeholders”.
On the position of the shipping companies that demurrage free period at the Kaduna Dry Port be reduced from 30 days to 10 days, the NPS said,” That is an internal arrangement between the owner of that terminal operator and the shipping companies. I just advised them to go to one of the shipping companies and have an understanding with them. I was able to have an arrangement with one of my importers who imports tiles, I met MSC and told them to give my importer 21 day free period, we sat down and they agreed, the man prefers to use that shipping company than a shipping company that will just give 10 day free period. It is just a matter of arrangement and agreement. It is a marketing strategy”.
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