By Steve Agbota
Former Commissioner of Transportation Lagos State, and the Executive Vice Chairman of the Presidential Task Team on the Restoration of Law and Order in Apapa Port, Dr. Kayode Opeifa, has said that over 50,000 unreturned empty containers are responsible for hike in freight rate in the country.
Opeifa who stated this in a chat with newsmen at the just concluded 3rd National Transportation Summit of the Chartered Institute of Nigeria (CIoTA) in Abuja, said that Nigeria is not the only country experiencing a surge in freight surcharge as there are presently a shortage of containers in the world.
According to him, the surcharge issue has become an international issue, as he traced the surge to the effects of the pandemic, which led to a low repatriation of containers by the shipping companies.
“Freight rate all over the world has increased, not only in Nigeria. It is a global issue. The problem is that there are fewer containers available in the world after the pandemic. So they are now manufacturing new ones,” he added.
He also revealed that the major cause of extortions and other forms of corrupt practices at the nation’s ports can be traced to the presence of over 50, 000 empty containers in Nigeria, adding that the high cost of demurrages on these containers has always led to the contentions faced at the ports.
Opeifa however charged the Federal Government to capitalise on the scarcity of containers all over the world to ensure a moratorium period for importers where nobody pays demurrage for containers and mandating shipping lines to use that period to evacuate the over 50,000 empty containers in Nigeria at no cost to their owners.
“Nigeria is supposed to have been lifted from this surge because we have excess containers. They would have used the opportunity to market the return of those containers. The world is looking for containers and we have excess. But because it seems like it is in the interest of some people to keep the containers in Nigeria.