NPA bans consignees from dropping empty containers at ports

As part of the reforms to come with the introduction of electronic call-up system aimed at easing truck movement in and out of the Lagos ports, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has banned consignees from taking empty containers to any port locations in Lagos.

Presently, cargo owners are expected to pay close to N200,000 and above to shipping companies as Container Deposit Fund, before they would be allowed to take their goods out of the port. It is from this fund that demurrage charges (penalty) for not returning empty containers within a specified period are being deducted.

With this ban, the NPA aims to either reduce the amount or eliminate the multi-billion naira annual loss by cargo owners to international shipping companies as demurrage. This is in addition to bringing sanity within the Apapa port corridor that has been battling with movement obstruction caused by indiscriminate parking of trucks on bridges and roads.

Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of NPA, who disclosed this on Wednesday during an interactive session with Lagos Traffic Radio, 96.1 FM, monitored by BusinessDay, said the authority has discovered that shipping companies were benefiting from empty containers.

According to her, going forward, consignees would no longer be allowed to go to the port to drop empty containers, rather empty containers should be taken to the holding-bays of shipping companies, where shipping companies would be responsible for taking them back to the port for export.