Lagos, July 5, 2023: A shipper, Reverend Jonathan Nicole, on Tuesday, says constant increase in tariffs is having negative impacts on the operations of importers at the port.
Nicole, past President, Shippers Association of Lagos State (SALS), on Tuesday in Lagos, appealed to government to halt tariff increase at the port for the next six months.
According to him, the cost of doing business at the port has been on the increase in recent times.
He added that the maritime industry was only thriving due to the shippers’ determination with the sector.
“We need to thank all the agencies that have been there working with us all these years and the past six months.
“Now, we have new changes in form of new administration coming up.
“In managing with the changes, we want the government to know that the cost of goods have not reduced but rather it seems to be going up because of the exchange rate and many other issues at port.
“Importers are finding it difficult to get additional funds because lack of funds. No matter what the difficulties are, man is made to solve difficulties.
“So, we are joining the team of new government to help solve some of these maritime problems because if not solved, it will make the new government uncomfortable when it comes to revenue generation,” he said.
Nicole noted that shippers were optimistic that there would be positive developments under the new administration, especially ss the government come up with new policies.
Nicole, while assuring of their support to the government, he called for reduction in the cost of doing business.
“This is because as it is, the goods coming in will be faced with additional cost of clearing and when pushed to the open market, it will bring more hardship to the people due to high cost.
“Also, some importers will not be able to sell because of high cost of clearing, they will be faced with problem of debt because they cannot pay the loans acquired from banks.
“We are appealing to government to look into the maritime sector critically and bring down cost of doing business at the port,” he said.
Nicole said that maritime operators, within the next six months, would still be watching the direction of government in terms of its support to the sector.
He, however, urged the government not to increase tariff, all in the name of targets.
“We don’t want these targets anymore, most especially ones given to the Nigeria Customs Service, as it is used to disrupt business,” he said.
Nicole noted that Nigeria had cargo but unfortunately, it could not be cleared easily in Nigeria.
According to him, the ship has been taken outside of the country due to issues in trade facilitation.
He, however, urged the government to ensure that whatever incentives they had in those ports be reintroduced in Nigeria so that importers would come back.
“Now that we have professional at the helm of customs, we look at the projection where they facilitate trade and bring down cost of doing business.
“For the shipping lines, they should ensure that one does not have overhead cost beyond what they can do,” he said.
