A report by the Sea Empowerment and Research Centre (SEREC) has stated that an estimated N12.3 billion overtime cargoes are currently lying idle at the nation’s ports.
The report, compiled in the Centre’s weekly bulletin and made available to The Guardian, calculated the worth of 558 import laden overtime containers, comprising 438 40-foot units and 120 20-foot units, based on clearance costs and international valuation methods.
In the report, signed by its Head of Research, Dr Eugene Nweke, SEREC examined clearance costs, trade values, and auction estimates to highlight the scale of economic capital locked up in the nation’s seaports.
According to the report, the out-of-pocket cost of clearing the cargoes was estimated at N720,960,000, which was based on an average clearance cost of N820,000 per twenty-foot container, comprising a N100,000 deposit per container within Lagos or Port Harcourt, and N400,000 outside those cities.
Also is the N100,000 shipping company charges, N120,000 terminal charges, N10,000 punching fee, between N50,000 – N100,000 Custom documentation, N250,000 agent fees and import duties of five to 35 per cent of the shipment value, which totally amounted to N98,400,000 for 120 units.
The report also estimated N1,420,000 per 40-foot container, which brought the total for 438 units to N622,560,000. These costs include N200,000 deposits for containers within Lagos or Port Harcourt, and N400,000 outside these cities, with N170,000 shipping company charges, N250,000 terminal fees, N10,000 punching and documentation, N200,000 -N300,000 agent fees, but exclude the five to 35 per cent import duties and other statutory levies.
SEREC report, on the value of the goods and the Free on Board (FOB) value — representing the cost of the goods before freight and insurance, was calculated using Nigeria’s prevailing exchange rate of N1,503 to a U.S. dollar.
The report, therefore, stressed that beyond the numbers, the continued accumulation of overtime cargoes undermines government revenue mobilisation and deprives local industries of critical machinery and inputs needed for production.
