Eromosele Abiodun
Five days after THISDAY exclusively reported that over 500,000 containers are trapped at the Lagos ports owing to the intractable Apapa gridlock, the situation has worsened with shippers incurring N20 billion on demurrage and storage charges daily.
Customs agents who spoke to THISDAY yesterday said importers pay N25, 000 as demurrage per container a day and another N15,000 as storage fees to terminal operators excluding 7.5 per cent value added tax (VAT).
This amounts to N12.5 billion daily demurrage charges on the 500,00 trapped containers and N7.5 billion storage fees.
At the close of business today, importers would have incurred a massive N100 billion on demurrage and storage fees in just five days.
The Frontlines By Joseph Ushigiale
Who are the sole beneficiaries of the current revenue drive being enforced by the Presidential Task Force on Ports Decongestion and Easing Apapa Gridlock?
The question has become pertinent because whoever is vested with the responsibility of supervising the task force, if he is not the sole beneficiary, ought to know by now that the task force has since outlived its usefulness and it is now operating beyond its brief extorting various sums ranging from N50,000 to N200,000 to grant access to port users. To maximum its profiteering, it has also resorted to illegally mounting all manner of obstacles and roadblocks which constitute the revenue collection points all over Apapa to make life utterly unbearable for port users and residents of Apapa.
Nigeria: How Corruption Fuels Apapa Traffic - Stakeholders allafrica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from allafrica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Godfrey Bivbere & Providence Adeyinka
THERE are indications that the problematic traffic bedevilling the port city of Apapa, Lagos and its environ is being fuelled by corruption with some stakeholders smiling to the bank daily even as the sector which is the second largest revenue contributor to the economy bleeds.
Investigation by
Vanguard Maritime Report revealed that beneficiaries’ includes officials of government agencies at the ports, shipping companies, terminal operators, leadership of the truckers, security personnel and hoodlums.
Vanguard Maritime Report gathered that some officials of the agencies are bribed to turn a blind eye to trucks breaching the traffic rules at the corridor.
Daily Trust had reported last week that the cost of doing business especially for the importation of goods through this same port had risen to N600,000 from N300,000 in 2019.
Some of the truckers who spoke to this paper blamed the hike on the continuous by suspected touts allegedly security agents along the port route.
It was also learnt that if the situation is unchecked, the freight cost could rise to over N2m before the year ends.
About 40 ships calling at the TCIP are said to be stranded at anchorage due to lack of space to discharge new cargoes at terminals in the port. This is because cargo evacuation has been hampered by the multiple toll points mounted by security operatives and taskforce members.