Dialogue With Clearing Agents On Tariff Increase, Shippers’ Council Urges Companies

Amid the hike in charges and tariffs by foreign shipping companies operating in the nation’s seaports, the executive secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Dr Pius Akutah, has urged shipping companies to engage clearing agents in dialogue to resolve the ongoing dispute.

Speaking to journalists in Abeokuta on the sidelines of the Council’s management retreat, Akutah said both the shipping companies and clearing agents must be willing to shift ground to reach a mutually beneficial agreement.

He stressed that discussions between the two parties should be guided by a spirit of compromise and mutual understanding.

According to him, the Council had previously turned down requests for a two-year increase in charges, noting that the requests were not necessarily aimed at profit-making or increasing profit margins.

Akutah emphasised that sustained stakeholder engagement remains critical to maintaining stability in the maritime sector and to ensuring that operational challenges do not disrupt port activities.

“I think that they need to work together more harmoniously to resolve these issues. We, as a regulator, have given the approval. It is left for the shipping companies and the Freight forwarders to come to a harmonious stand where they can implement this.”

“So, there must be a reason for people to move, shift ground it should be a give and take relationship. Whenever there is a stand down, and nobody is moving, then there’s a problem. I am not speaking on behalf of the shipping companies or the Freight forwarders, but I think they need to work together more harmoniously to resolve these issues.

“We, as regulators, have given the approval; it is left for the shipping companies and the Freight forwarders to come to a harmonious stand where they can implement this,” the Council boss explained.

He, however, reiterated the call for both parties to return to the roundtable to resolve the issue of tariff increment once and for all.

“We cannot sit and watch this without taking steps. It will come to a point where we can escalate this to the minister if they fail to resolve it.

“Recently, we tried to see how we can wade into this to see how they can resolve this, but this has kept going on. We are calling on both sides to go back to the table and see how they can resolve this issue and move on,” he stated.

“It is for the stakeholders in this sector to also understand that ours is also a relationship that needs to continue to roll on each other so that we can all move together.

“If they say there won’t be any hike in charges and at the end of the day, the cost of operation has hindered them from carrying out their functions, then we will not have a maritime sector,” he stated.