The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has alleged that one of the leading shipping lines in Nigeria, COSCO Shipping does not have a physical office in Nigeria where it operates from.
The National Vice President of the association, Dr. Kayode who disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos said that even though it handles not less than 4,000 containers monthly, the management of the shipping line in the country had not deemed it fit to procure an office accommodation where people can locate them rather they seek shelter with another shipping line Comet.
In his words,” We even have a shipping company that has not less than 4,000 containers in a month but doesn’t have office here, they collect their deposit and they are being protected by Comet. The name of the shipping company is Cosco. These are the things that I am making more recommendations to the MD that must be looked into. It is either you do business with us and obey our laws or you get out of this our country.
On the impact of the recent sanction by the Nigerian Ports Authority on some shipping companies who failed to procure holding bays for their empty containers, he said that the sanction actually bore fruit as many of them had actually hired holding bays even though they were not commensurate with the volume of containers they handle monthly.
He said,” What they have is not commensurate to their import volume. If their import volume is 5,000 TEUs every month and you are having a holding bay that can take 2,000 containers only, is that a holding bay? When you talk about holding bay and my import volume is 5,000 TEUs, then I should have a holding bay that will accommodate 7,500 TEUs, meaning that my holding bay is in excess of 2,500 TEUs.
“So, the sanction has really worked, they are on their toes, Maersk Line, so arrogant that they can flout our laws, for the first time, Maersk Line has hired a holding bay as a result of that sanction. It now has two holding bays even though the holding bay has nothing to write home about, one has 2,000 TEUs capacity while the other one is 2,500 TEUs, compared it to the volume of import that Maersk Line handles every month, you will know that they are short changing Nigerians”.
He however aligned himself with the school of thought that advocated that the shipping companies should be made to pay storage fee for empty containers that had exceeded one month period at the Nigerian seaports so as to stem the tide of using Nigeria as a dumping ground for empty containers by the shipping companies.
“There is a particular law that says, if you have a vessel that is coming with 200 TEUs, then you should move out 200 containers out of our country. Are they obeying the law? Because the Nigeria Customs Service is not sanctioning them and I learnt that it is part of either legal notices or CEMA. Customs is supposed to sanction them on this.
“I want to advice that if this law is actually in existence, they should move it to the Nigerian Ports Authority to monitor. It is because they are flouting our laws with impunity and nobody has been sanctioning them, that is the reason everything goes but not this time around. We have an MD that is passionate about enforcing sanity in our ports. So, I am expecting more sanctions for all these shipping companies”, he enthused.
He therefore commended the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman for having the guts to apply those sanctions on erring shipping companies even as he said that such a thing had not happened in the nation’s maritime industry in the last three decades.
He added, “I wrote that recommendation that Maersk Line should be sanctioned and I am happy that they have been sanctioned. When we had a meeting at the Lagos Governor’s office, I recommended that they should add additional days and Madam added additional ten days because they have turned Nigeria into dumping ground for empty containers.
“They have an association and they have told themselves that they can bring empty containers to Nigeria and leave them here because they are not paying money and what they do is causing havoc and confusion on our roads and that is why they will always make sure you lose your container deposit on the containers knowing full well that our managers who are managing the ports don’t have hindsight because if they are seeing the future, a right thinking person will not site tank farm in our ports”.
Meanwhile, attempts to get the management or the agents of the shipping line in Nigeria speak to our correspondent was not successful as at the time of filing this report.
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