A foremost freight forwarder, Dr. Fred Ajuzie has advised the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola to pay close attention and check the excesses of the government agencies as well as private establishments operating under the Ministry in the year 2025 so as to improve on the Presidential Order on ease of doing business at the nation’s seaports.
Ajuzie who made this call in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos on Tuesday reminded the Minister that the Ministry was actually created to reposition the Marine and Blue Economy sector of the Nigerian economy and to ensure that the inherent potential in the sector were adequately harnessed warning that the Minister should not lose sight of this vision.
He urged the Minister to monitor closely the activities of the shipping companies and the terminal operators who he described as thorn in the flesh of the freight forwarders by making things difficult for them, saying, “we are always suffering in their hands because any little thing, they capitalize on that and start ripping us off.”
According to him, “They are there collecting demurrage and anything about demurrage is just like the money you just dashed them. They can delay your cargo in order to collect demurrage. It’s just like the terminal operators are delaying not to scan your goods. By the time you book for scanning, they waste time in bringing their truck to take your container to scanner. All these are delays that the freight forwarders encounter on daily basis and importers don’t want to hear all that.
“Shipping companies and terminal operators are collecting money not tied to any service. The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy should look into the activities of the shipping companies and terminal operators because one of the things that government does is that it doesn’t want to look into the plights of the freight forwarders who are suffering in the hands of these people.
“The Minister should not stop at only bringing a professional freight forwarder to head the CRFFN, it should also bring professionals to run the terminal operators and shipping companies for them to manage the establishments efficiently. They collecting revenues that the government doesn’t know anything about.
“So, my advice goes to the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy to check the excesses of the agencies attached to it and look into their activities in order to improve the ease of doing business in the country.”
Insisting that the shipping companies and terminal operators are feeding fat on Nigerians, Ajuzie who is also the Managing Director of Pat-Fuze Nigeria Limited begged the Ministry to consider the plights of Nigerians because they were losing a lot money as well as their clients because of the high-handedness of the shipping companies and the terminal operators.
“Before the terminal operators could refund you money that you paid to them, you have to engage the services of a lawyer to make that happen which in turn means spending more money because you need to pay to get the services of a lawyer.
“We are paying money to the terminal operators that we are not supposed to pay, we pay them for delays occasioned by their inefficiency. Freight Forwarders are paying demurrage to the terminal operators and shipping companies for services not rendered. You are ready to do examination, they will not position your container as and when due only for them to turn around to collect demurrage for no fault of yours.
“They could not be able to bring their truck to take your container to the scanner and they will still collect demurrage for the days you are waiting for them to do so. This is the height of corruption and it’s time the government put an end to this exploitative tendencies”, he submitted.
He further decried the tendency of some government agencies including the Standards Organization of Nigeria, SON and the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC to abandon their core mandate and focus on revenue generation describing it as counter-productive.
“SON ensured that they are connected to the customs Single Window for them to get access to what the customs are doing and Immediately a job is being captured, the thing will get to them so that they will block it, whether the thing is to be blocked or not, they will go ahead to block it and ask you to come to their office. Whether the goods you brought in is SON regulated or not. It encourages delay in the system.
“If they do what they are supposed to do, they are supposed to know importers that are compliant but in this case, whether you are compliant or not, they will block you. On getting to their office, they will ask you to bring this paper and that paper”, he said.
When reminded that the Importers we’re to be blamed for not complying to the trade procedures, Ajuzie who is also the Chairman of the Trade Facilitation Committee of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, NAGAFF said, “What is compliance to trade procedures? If you are not compliant, you pay penalty for it. It is the importers’ business to register his products properly. If you don’t register it properly, you cannot clear it from the port.
“Those agencies should make it mandatory that any product that is not properly registered can never leave the port and you will see everybody will fall in line. But by the time you start blocking and unblocking, collecting money by the roadside, the importer will have a leeway to continue with his illegal business because he knows that there’s always a way to go around it.”
Photo: Dr. Fred Ajuzie, Managing Director, Pat-Fuze Nigeria Limited.
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