Nigerian importers and shippers will spend N59 billion in 2017, due to the increase in freight charges on every container coming into the country by foreign shipping lines.
The foreign shipping lines, which increased the freight rate with a caption ‘Government and Port Taxes’ by N38,000, gave no reason for the action.
Industry statistics showed that 1,020,240 containers were received at Lagos port in 2010 while 1,268,758 containers were discharged at the Lagos Port in 2011.
1,368,000 were received in 2012, 1,396,057 in 2013, 1,551,540 and 1,317,212 in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Consequently, with an average of 1.3 million containers discharging at the Lagos ports yearly, the freight rate increment will cause Nigerian importers to pay additional N59 billion to the shipping lines.