Adegboyega Oyetola, minister of marine and blue economy, estimated that since 2011, 6,000 abandoned shipments have been cleared at Apapa and Tin Can ports.
This was said by Oyetola yesterday while he was at the Lagos office of the Nigerian Shippers' Council (NSC).
He added that the issue of overdue goods at the ports is being exacerbated by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) physical examination in clearing processes and that the abandoned cargo takes up space and causes the nation great loses.
At Apapa and Tin Can Island ports, there are about 6,000 abandoned shipments that are uncleared. I saw one of the inspections and noticed some slack cargo. Some of them, from what I can tell, have been there since 2011.
Oyetola stated that it is important to promote ease of doing business at the ports, stressing that scanners should be used by Customs to expedite clearance procedures rather than the cumbersome physical examination.
The Nigerian Shippers' Council Act should be amended in order to implement effective port economic control, according to Rotimi Anifowose, the NSC's director of planning.
In addition, he demanded that the International Cargo Tracking Note be put into practice along with the actualization of the 1% freight stabilization fee on import and export to the Nigerian Shippers' Council as stipulated in the NSC Subsidiary Legislation.
The Federal Government named the Council as the secretariat of the Nigerian Fleet Implementation Committee after Anifowose emphasized the necessity of creating a national fleet.
According to him, the proposed fleet, which is to be entirely driven by the private sector, is expected to address the following issues, including low national tonnage capacity, job and freight earnings loss, a distorted trade balance, the sector's minimal contribution to the GDP, and foreign dominance of maritime activity.
When the national fleet is in place, the country's GDP will increase by more than $5.42 billion, he claimed.