Shipping firms say CTN will impose additional cost on shippers

Shipping companies operating in Nigeria, under the aegis of Shipping Association of Nigeria (SAN), have insisted that planned reintroduction of the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) will impose an additional cost on the already high of cost of doing business on importers and exporters.

Speaking recently with newsmen, Val Usifoh, chairman of SAN, called on Shippers’ Council to reconsider its plans to reintroduce CTN, which was abolished by the Federal Government in 2011 due the controversies surrounding the cost implication.

Usifoh, who was the former chairman of the Port Industry Anti-Corruption Standing Committee (PIACSAC), said CTN was stopped five years ago because it did not only place additional financial burden on shippers but also added to the cost of doing business at the nation’s seaports.

“I hope that government will have a rethink on it. In 2010, it was approved by the Federal Executive Council and by 2011 it was abolished because they find out that it had no value addition, yet all the money collected then, nobody accounted for it,” he said.

Frank Ojadi, a transport logistics expert and head of operations department, Lagos Business School, had in a recent report faulted claims by the NSC that CTN would not attract charges or add to port costs.

“CTN was abolished almost immediately due to the high cost it imposed on shippers (importers and exporters) and the strong opposition to it. It is very strange to hear NSC assume the full powers of the FEC to reintroduce the CTN. The reasons given by them are not convincing since the Customs have the means and ways of monitoring the risks associated with imports,” he said.