Former National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, Dr. Kayode Farinto, has identified the rising cost of diesel, declining value of the naira and high rate of inflation, among other factors, prompted the upward review of port terminal operators’ charges.
Farinto disclosed this at the sidelines of the meeting of Customs Agents in Lagos on Tuesday, amidst lingering clash over drastic hike in port charges.
He said, “We all know that the indices at work in the ports now are not as it used to be and things have changed. The terminal operators too are Nigerians and if we juxtapose what is happening in the economy with the fact that there has been an increase in price of fuel and the exchange rate, there has to be a rise in their charges too.
“I want to commend them because they are coming late in increasing their charges because I know that if it were to be the old operators, they would have increased the charges. There is nothing anyone can do about it.”
Farinto also charged the Federal Government to repair the dilapidated port access roads to reduce the hardship faced by importers and their agents.
“Government has failed in their responsibility to even provide the services they need to provide. What are these services? It was 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 the government must go back and do that. Secondly, the government must fix all the roads that are dilapidated, particularly the access road 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 the port area.
“If I were in government, I would say, let us delineate the port area. Let us start from Ijora and if it’s along Mile 2, the port area starts from Mile 2. After delineating the port area, they will also do geo-fencing so as to monitor the port area. These are the things the government needs to put in place so that the properties of people are secured,” he explained.
