From Anthony Nwachukwu, Lagos
Rising cost of diesel, declining value of the naira and high rate of inflation, among others, justified terminal operators’ upward review of charges, former Ag. National President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farinto, has said.
Farinto, who spoke against the backdrop of condemnations by some stakeholders, including clearing agents and freight forwarders, stated: “We all know that the indices of working in the port now are not as it used to be, things have changed.
“The terminal operators too are Nigerians and if we juxtapose what is happening vis-a-vis the fact that there has been increment in prices of fuel and the dollar has risen, there has to be a rise in their charges too.
“We are in an era where you cannot predict the dollar and these people are rendering services, so it becomes inevitable for them to increase (rates). Nobody should be criticised for that.”
Farinto commended the terminal operators for increasing their charges so late, stating that if it were the old operators, they would have increased the charges long ago, and “there is nothing anyone can do about it.”
Taking a swipe at the Federal Government over the dilapidated port access roads, which has brought hardship to importers and their agents, he stated that “government has failed in their responsibility ab initio to even provide the services they needed to.
“What are these services? It is in the concession agreement that the government will provide electricity 24/7 but this has not been made available. It is still the same terminal operators that are providing electricity, so government must go back and do that.
“Secondly, government must put in order all the roads that are dilapidated, particularly the access roads to the seaports, and I have also said that it is high time we delineated the port area. As we speak, we do not know which area is the port area, and that is why we have miscreants encroaching on port area.”
He stressed that if he were in government, he would delineate the port area from Ijora (on the Ijora axis), and from Mile 2 (on that axis), and follow up with geo-fencing so as to monitor the port area and secure investors’ properties.
On another issue of concern, Farinto stressed that if the government were to perform its responsibility, there would be no dollarisation of money being collected from terminal operators because “as the terminal operators pay in dollars, they will also transfer the increase to storage tariff.
He charged this government to fulfill its promise, having assured to give things that will cushion the effect of the hardship experienced by the people, adding that part of it is to ensure that “any terminal operator that wants to pay pays in the equivalence of naira and not pay in dollars, which is not predictable now.”
