Nigeria: Naccima Official Blames Port Congestion on Shipping Agencies

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 Dec 2008

The Second Deputy President of the Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) Mr Mohammed Abubakar said that shipping agencies should be blamed for the current congestion at the Lagos ports. He said that the immediate cause of the congestion were empty containers abandoned at the ports by the shipping agencies. He said in Lagos that a situation where importers use ports as warehouse should be discouraged by the Federal Government.
The NACCIMA official suggested that the Nigerian Shippers' Council should be empowered to have effective control over container handling.
"The policy that a vessel should leave the country with the number of container brought in or at least 50 percent of the containers should be freighted out of the country by the vessel should be implemented to reduce the flooding of the ports with empty containers," he said.
He explained that the country's import demand had increased by about 50 percent without improved facilities to cope with the rise. According to him, the delay in cl
earing process at the ports may trigger off increase in the prices of some items.

Source: All Africa