By Andy Asemota
Senate has expressed concerns that the cost of shipping goods into Nigerian Ports is among the highest in the world with figure for Apapa Port costing more than five times higher than that of Durban, South Africa and thrice higher than in Tama, Ghana.
Worried that the arbitrary introduction of excessive shipping charges will strangulate Nigerian shippers and importers, and worried that if they (law makers) do not rise up and “defend the nation from the economic sabotage,” this development can cause a spiral inflation rate on the economy, the Upper Chamber led by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, mandated its committee on marine transport to engage with stakeholders in shipping industry and the Nigerian Port Authority with a view to proffer solution to the matter.
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Presenting the lead debate on his motion decrying the exorbitant increase and unjustifiable shipping fees charged by shipping companies on Nigeria bound cargoes, Senator Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah (Anambra South, YPP), lamented that despite May 2017 Executive Order of Nigerian government outlawing unofficial charges at the ports, “available statistics suggest that these unjustifiable charges and extortions by shipping agencies and law enforcement officers at the ports have continued till date.”
This, Ubah, opined has caused unjust hardship to Nigerians as importers transfer expenditure to both traders and consumers, adding that a close look at charges in other countries show that shipping cost of a standard container from China to Ghana is 3, 200 dollars and 3,000 to Cotonou, the cost went up in Nigeria from 3,200 dollars few months ago to 8,500 dollars.
