Vehicle imports at Nigeria’s biggest RoRo terminal drops by 70.5%

The volume of vehicles imported into the country through the Port and Terminal Multi-purpose Limited (PTML), Nigeria’s biggest RoRo terminal, located at the Tin-Can Island Port in Lagos, dropped by 70.5 percent in the year ending in 2015.

Statistics shows that a total of 66,000 vehicles were imported in 2015 as against the 224, 000 imported through the terminal in 2014.

As a result, the PTML Area command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) lamented the continuous drop in its revenue profile occasioned by the drop in the volume of vehicles and other cargoes imported through the terminal.

Speaking in Lagos recently, Steve Okonma, Public Relations Officer of the Command, said the command currently examines, on the average, one container per day as against an average of 98 containers examined daily ‘in the time past’.

Alarmingly, while 93 containerised cargoes were imported through the terminal in 2014, only 23 were brought in 2015.

“PTML had never experienced such dip in its revenue collection and this is the worst since inception. This can be blamed on the implementation of auto policy, which allowed vehicles meant for Nigerian market, to be diverted to Republic of Benin where importers pay only N600, 000 for duty including charges for Cost Insurance Freight (CIF), as against N2.5 million duties in Nigeria,” he explained.

Continuing, he said: “Benin Republic relies only on import for revenue and 99 percent of such imports find their way into Nigerian market. And there is nothing we can do about the situation because Customs don’t import. Ours is to generate revenue for the government but we have been discussing with the terminal operator, and they are perfecting plans to diversify. They plan to open up to China for importation of general cargoes.”

 Uzoamaka Anagor-Ewuzie