Tin-Can Island Container Terminal and the challenge of cargo clearance

Nigerian seaports, especially the Tin-Can Island Container Terminal (TICT), have for some time now been under serious criticisms from industry stakeholders due to the huge challenges posed to timely delivery of cargo to the importer’s warehouse by the present system of cargo examination.

Recently, importers and their clearing agents, who bring in the goods through Tin-Can Island port, the nation’s second largest seaport, using the facility of TICT, have been witnessing drop in the volume of containers scanned by Cotecna, the Destination Inspection service provider in charge of scanning and issuing of risk assessment report (RAR) on imported consignment.

Industry stakeholders who spoke with BusinessDay blamed lack of sufficient cargo handling equipment and stacking space at TICT’s scanning site for the current drop in the number of scanned containers.

According to them, Cotecna has the capacity to scan about 400 containers on daily basis but space limitation and lack of trucks to move containers to the scanning site, TICT, has hindered it from moving the above-mentioned number of containers for scanning.

Confirming this, Jibrin Zakari, Customs area controller of Tin-Can Island Port command, told newsmen last week that as it is, TICT can only move 200 containers per day for scanning due to shortage of truck and lack of space.

The reduction in the volume of scanned containers from about 300 down to 100 containers daily, according to port users, currently results to delay in cargo clearance, which in turn has increased the cost of doing business at the port. Importers and their agents, who used to clear a container within the space of 14 days, now spend over 14 days waiting for the container to be scanned and for the RAR to be issued before other clearance procedures can commence. At the end of the day, it now takes a minimum of 21 days to clear a consignment in that terminal, ports users disclosed.

During a recent visit to TICT and the facilities of Cotecna Destination Inspection Limited (CDIL), Hassan Bello, executive secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), decried the sufferings that Nigerian importers are made to go through while clearing their consignments from the ports. He described cargo clearance operations at the Nigerian port as a near-primitive and cumbersome procedure, which he said could jettison the benefits of the port reforms embarked upon by the Federal Government in 2006 to enhance efficiency and reduce the cost of doing business at the ports.

Bello, who noted that the essence of port reforms was to encourage competition, added that the recent controversies trailing cargo clearance at the port meant there was no competition at Nigerian ports.

The NSC boss further disclosed that monitoring of cargo dwell time at all terminals would soon commence. The terminals, he said, were a transient facility to clear cargoes after arrival and should not be made a storage facility or holding bay, adding that the council has also been empowered to exact sanction on any erring terminal operator.

“The dwell time for cargo is very lengthy, which is not supposed to be. We are going to come up with a procedure because there are many institutions in the port, each with specific responsibilities. There must be synergy and interchange for prompt cargo clearance,” he said.

“The Nigerian Shippers’ Council has been having meetings with the terminal operators. One thing we have made known is that there are things which must be streamlined in their operations. And nobody should be made to pay for what he has not incurred,” he added.

He, however, advised the agents to desist from under-declaration and comply with import guidelines because cargo clearance delay sometimes could be as a result of false declaration.

Kanikwu David Chuks, secretary of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Tin-Can chapter, attributed the issue of under-declaration to the content of bill of lading presented by the importer to the Customs agents.

Meanwhile, ANLCA and National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) have threatened withdrawal of services from TICT, according to statements signed by the national presidents of both associations.

Olayiwola Shittu, president of ANLCA, said that despite the presidential directive to the management of TICT to effect changes in their operations for efficient cargo delivery, nothing had been done, disclosing that his members would no longer render their services to the terminal.

The Tin-Can chapter of the association further issued a seven-day ultimatum to the terminal, with effect from Wednesday, September 18, 2013, to reverse the issue of delivery order as a requirement for examination booking or risk the members’ wrath.

Similarly, Eugene Nweke, president of NAGAFF, who accused TICT of disrespecting the presidential directive, also threatened the withdrawal of his association’s services from the terminal.

By: Uzoamaka Anagor