Shippers Council, a regulator in the maritime industry, is being accused of aiding foreigners in the repatriation of funds meant for Nigeria
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) port economic regulator has been slammed for aiding the excesses of foreign shipping lines operating in Nigerian ports.
Recall that there have been perennial squabble between freight forwarders and shipping lines over failure of the freight forwarders to refund container deposits paid to them
Speaking recently on behalf of the five registered associations under the group for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), Kayode Farinto, National Vice President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) said that despite ripping Nigerians off, NSC aid the shipping companies to repatriate their funds abroad.
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They accused the Council of allowing the foreigners to get away with the funds they make from demurrages and unreturned container deposits.
The group maintained that if they have been denied signature to repatriate the funds, all the problems would have been solved before now.
On acquisition of holding bays, he stated that there was no hiding place for the operators anymore.
“I don’t know where they want to hide now, every shipping company is expected to have what is called holding bays and you and I know that the various holding bays they have cannot contain the number of empties they have
“How can you bring 500 containers and have a holding bay that can contain only 200 containers. Who is fooling who? Meanwhile, you allow our container deposit to be depleting on the trucks and the Shippers’ Council continue to sign for them to repatriate this money
“We have studied the intricacies and technicalities of these things, we know it and we are now saying Shippers’ Council should desist from signing this thing for them and if they do that, there would be sanity in our ports.
“It is because we are allowing them to have a field day, you are charging them for a deposit, charging container detention and repatriating this money and Nigerians are signing this money to be repatriated,” he said.