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Terminal operators face litigation over N1tn charges

By on February 8, 2015

Concessionaires in the nation’s seaports are under fire for collecting charges running into over N1 trillion believed to be illegal from port users, particularly importers in their terminals. And the operators have threatened a court action against the concessionaires if they do not refund the money.

The concessionaires took over the day-to-day running of the nation’s seaports following the economic reforms that led to the concession of the terminals to private investors in 2006. Since then, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is no longer in charge of cargo handling. NPA only remains the landlord with the responsibility for managing of common user services.

However, importers said the concessionaires have been collecting illegal charge and insisting they must return all the money they illegally collected from them as charges prior to the appointment of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) as an interim economic regulator last year.

In a bid to press home their demands, the importers have contacted former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, to file an application to challenge the alleged wrongdoing before the court.

Already, Agbakoba has threatened to commence the action against the concessionaires under the aegis of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) and the Association of Shipping Line Agencies (ASLA)  if they fail to return the over N1 trillion they allegedly collected from importers.

Explaining the rationale for the impending suit he said  the Federal High Court in Lagos recently upheld the NSC as the ports economic regulator and directed the terminal operators and shipping companies to cut down their charges and refund all the money they collected from importers.

He accused the terminal operators and shipping companies of driving away genuine investors and crippling the economy through the illegal charges.

Agbakoba enjoined the federal government to overhaul its outdated policies and embark on a visionary enterprise that will institutionalise growth in the maritime industry as an alternative to the oil and gas industry.

“The last major review of Nigerian Shipping Policy was 28 years ago when the NSP act no 10 of 1987 was enacted,” he said.

While wondering why the terminal operators and the shipping companies have not refunded the N1 trillion to boost shipping and maritime, he enjoined the government to create an enabling environment  to encourage huge investment in the maritime industry.

He said:”The ports that are supposed to be the hub of shipping business in West and Central Africa Sub-regions were unattractive and uncompetitive because of arbitrary charges. We went to court recently and there were two very important cases; the terminal operators and shipping companies hiked their prices and introduced one non-sense charge (shipping line agency charge) making billions of naira and the court has declared it to be illegal collections.

“The next case we are pursuing is that we are going to go after the terminal operators and the shipping companies to refund at least the N1 trillion they have taken illegally.
The N1 trillion, had Nigerian companies had it,  would give them capital to do other things, and this is why the Nigerian Shippers Council has insisted that nobody must be allowed to over-price the ports because they do,  many importers will not patronise them”.

He expressed dismay that as a result of the high charges and inefficiency in the nation’s seaports, many port users have abandoned them for the ones located in Nigeria’s neighbouring countries such as Togo, Ghana, and the Republic of Benin.

Giving an insight on the way forward, Agbakoba said: “Until recently, there is no clearly recognised economic regulator for the shipping sector. The Federal High Court has held that the Nigerian Shippers Council is an economic regulator. It is only when the Nigerian Shippers Council, is empowered to regulate that stakeholders in the sector can turn around their businesses and generate huge revenue for the nation as their counterparts in other countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and USA.

“This is due to lack of regulation in the sector, which has led to a plethora of uncoordinated activities and exorbitant port charges which make Nigeria very unattractive for business. Invariably, Nigeria due to paucity of its shipping regulations is violating international trade facilitation laws. For instance, Nigeria as a coastal state is to provide port importation support and access to landlocked countries such as Niger and Burkina Faso.
Cameroun and Ghana are now providing those services in spite of long distances between the countries”.

 

 

[ThisDay]