High charges: Importers eye Accra, others

High charges by different Federal Government agencies have compelled importers to move their cargoes through Accra, thus affecting revenues that should accrue to Nigeria.

Managing Director, Merchant Express, operator of Cargo Airlines Limited, Captain Shina Akinfenwa, disclosed this to Woleshadare.net in Lagos.

He stated that due to the exorbitant charges by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and other agencies, customers are reluctant to bring cargo into Nigeria.

He said that Nigerian importers are attracted to the Ports of Cotonou and Accra because of lower customs duty on imports.

His words: “The charges are outrageous; charges that are never known in most parts of the world, which are packaged together for importers to pay, are close to about 10. It is on every kilo that comes.

That is apart from paying your import duty.” He listed the charges as cargo charges and handling charges, adding that FAAN collects N5 per kilo from every cargo. Other charges, according to him, include ground handling charges, warehouse charge of N20 per kilogramme of goods, N50 levy by the NCAA per kilo, NAFDAC fees, forklift charge and Port Health charge, among others.

He stated that by the time all these charges are added together, importers would have paid so much on their import with cost of goods eventually passed on to the consumers.

“I don’t have the list, but the NCAA has the list because recently they asked them to do a list. The charges are ridiculous. FAAN collects N5 per kilo from us.

They will go to the warehouse to charge another N20 per kilo. NCAA collects N50 per kilo. You have not added your import duty.

The ground handling agent you have to pay, you have to pay Port Health and NAFDAC fees. “You will also pay forklift charge, so many ridiculous charges.

By the time you put all these together, you have spent a fortune to do that. These charges are however, transferred to the consumers.

That is on the import side. Landing fees are the highest in the world. Parking fee is the same,” he said. Akinfenwa noted that the plan to make Lagos a hub of aviation in West Africa does not look realistic as, according to him, Accra, Ghana, has already become the hub of aviation in the West African sub-region because of low cost of doing business in that country.

He said: “They say they want to make Lagos a hub, this is not possible. I think Accra is already the hub because the government of Ghana, towards the end of last year, gave a discount of about 20 per cent on fuel and discount on landing and parking fees.

In Ghana, you don’t pay charges on your export because it is not encouraging to export. “You have a situation where Nigerian exporters are taking their export through Ghana to export because when they bring in these cargoes, the charges are too much. It is no more competitive to bring your cargo through Nigeria.”

The cargo airline operator advised the Federal Government to rescind its decision on policies that he said are detrimental to the growth of airlines in the country. He, however, took a swipe on the carriers, saying that no Nigerian in the country today could successfully manage an airline due to their lack of deep knowledge of airline management.

Akinfenwa lamented that government, over the years, has not been protecting the local carriers against their foreign counterparts by generously granting them multiple designation into the country as against the tenets of Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) with the airlines.

He maintained that since Nigerians doesn’t have reciprocity to most of these destinations, one would have expected the Federal Government, through its policy, to compel the foreign carriers to land in one point in Nigeria and interline with local operators for the distribution of their passengers to their destinations.

Currently, Nigeria has 90 BASAs with countries while it could only reciprocate about 10. He said: “Government policies over the years have not been helpful to the industry. Passengers operations have not been helpful to Nigeria, especially domestic operation.

This is a general concern to the Nigerian people. The international carriers have been encouraged and assisted to have multiple destinations in Nigeria.”