Headlines

Eastern shippers, freight forwarders on collision course with Shippers’ Council over increase in haulage rate

Akutah Pius Ukeyima, ES, NSC

The Eyewitness Reporter

Importers, Exporters and freight forwarders playing their trade in the South East region of the country have rejected the recent 200 percent hike in haulage rate by the Nigerian Shippers’Council.

They described the increase as “outrageous, arbitrary, and unacceptable.”

In a press conference called by the aggrieved shippers in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, they claimed that if the hike was not reversed, it would bring them on a collision course with the Shippers’ Council.

Addressing journalists on behalf of the aggrieved group, Joshua Ahuama, Zonal Coordinator of the Association of Nigerian Customs Licenced Agents (ANLCA), claimed that the rate will not only lead to spiral inflation but also in contravention of the provisions of the NSC Act.

He disclosed that the group shall give the Shippers’Council a seven-day ultimatum to reverse to status quo or face withdrawal of their services at the Eastern ports.

He accused the council of not consulting concerned stakeholders before arriving at the decision, saying consultations are an integral part of the NSC Act.

“Recently, the NSC approved a 200 percent increment in haulage rate for transport owners and drivers operating under the Maritime Union of Nigeria.

“To this end, importers and freight forwarders associations in the eastern zone have unanimously disputed the new rate because it is outrageous, arbitrary, and unacceptable to all stakeholders in the zone.

“We have, however, resolved to adopt all peaceful efforts. We started this move on March 14 by calling on the NSC to ensure proper stakeholder engagement and renegotiation.

” These measures are also expected to help all parties to reach a benchmark that would be in the interest of all stakeholders in the maritime value chain,” Ahuama noted.

“We also urge the NSC to return to the status quo by suspending the implementation of the disputed rate, pending proper renegotiation covering the interest of all stakeholders.

“We are not on a selfish course. Our demands are in the interest of Nigerians because any slight increase in the haulage rate will reflect on the prices of goods in the open market.

“A businessman incorporates total logistic costs into the prices of goods.”

However, the group said they might be constrained to take drastic measures, including suspending all declarations of goods and payments of customs duties, which could negatively affect national revenue and economic output.

Some members of the import and export associations present at the meeting included the Nigeria Shippers Association, the Aba International Traders Association, the Ultimate Importers Association, the POP Importers Association, the Nnewi Importers Association, and the Onitsha Importers Association.

However, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council has said that the new approved rate took into consideration the cost, moderation and other cargo transport issues.

Related Topics:featured Shippers council

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Comrade Muktar Yakubu pleads for patience over ongoing review of staff salary at Nigerian Shippers’ Council

Gloria Odion, Maritime reporter

The President of the Senior Staff Association of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Comrade Muktar Yakubu, has asked the staff of the Council to be patient with the management over the delay in adjustment of their salary, revealing that the process is ongoing and awaiting the approval of the appropriate authority.

The labour leader make this clarification following the apparent agitation of staff over the delayed adjustment in their salaries and emoluments.

It would be recalled that the Executive Secretary of the NSC, Pius Akutah, during the 2026 strategic management retreat of the council held in Abeokuta, Ogun state between March,4th – 7th, 2026, had revealed plans by the management to push for the salary review of staff.

However, Comrade Muktar Yakubu said the process had already begun, praising the commitment of Pius Akutah- led management in this regard.

He however clarified that the ongoing salary review within the Council is still undergoing official government processes and has not yet been approved for implementation.

Speaking on the development, Yakubu explained that the exercise is strictly guided by established public service procedures, stressing that salary reviews in federal agencies require multiple layers of approval before they can take effect.

Explaining the procedure, the labour leader said the Nigerian Shippers’ Council initiated the process through the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, which serves as its supervising ministry.

Comrade Yakubu noted that once the ministry gave its approval, the proposal was forwarded to the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) for further statutory consideration, in collaboration with the Budget Office of the Federation and other relevant authorities.

He emphasized that while the proposal has already reached the NSIWC and necessary clarifications were provided when requested, final approval is still being awaited.

Yakubu stressed that no implementation can commence until the Commission gives its formal consent.

He also clarified that ministry’s approval does not translate into immediate salary adjustments, adding that the NSIWC remains the final authority responsible for approving remuneration structures in federal agencies.

Speaking further on the role of management, Yakubu commended the Executive Secretary of the Council for initiating the process and supporting the establishment of a salary committee tasked with reviewing the Council’s financial position and developing a new salary framework.

He noted that the committee’s recommendations were approved internally before being forwarded through the appropriate channels.

Addressing concerns about staff welfare, the union leader said it would be inaccurate to describe the workforce as generally dissatisfied, noting that while individual concerns exist, the Council continues to make efforts within its available resources to improve staff conditions.

He added that staff welfare remains a priority for the union, but must be considered within the financial realities and operational capacity of the organisation, stressing that comparisons with other agencies should take into account differences in budgetary allocations and mandates.

Yakubu further stated that management has already implemented several welfare initiatives and continues to demonstrate commitment to improving staff conditions where possible.

He urged staff to remain patient, reiterating that the salary review process is progressing through due process and that final approval from the NSIWC is the last stage before implementation can begin.

He expressed optimism that once the process is concluded, staff would begin to benefit from the new salary structure alongside other ongoing welfare improvements within the Council.

Analyses

The Anchor of Dependency: Rethinking Nigeria’s Port Financing Strategy

Monday Discourse with Ibrahim Nasiru

The recent Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA) conference in Lagos concluded with a dizzying array of multi-billion-dollar infrastructure promises.

Amidst the boardroom handshakes and official communiques, a familiar theme emerged: West Africa requires tens of billions of dollars to build the “Ports of the Future.”

For Nigeria, a nation grappling with aging brownfield infrastructure and the pressure to fully optimize its deep seaports, the question of infrastructure is no longer about what to build, but how to pay for it.

For decades, Nigeria’s approach to Port development has been tethered to a traditional anchor of dependency, an over-reliance on foreign loans, lopsided concession frameworks, and external development contracts.

If the nation is to truly unlock the economic sovereignty promised by the Blue Economy, it must critically re-evaluate its Port financing strategy, shifting away from debt-heavy models toward aggressive domestic capital mobilization and genuine structural reforms that address how we handle our internal maritime revenues.

Historically, major Port expansions in Sub-Saharan Africa have followed a predictable financial script.

A sovereign state secures a massive bilateral loan, frequently from foreign development banks, backed by state guarantees or the projected revenues of the Port asset itself.

On the surface, this model delivers immediate gratification: shiny new gantry cranes, dredged channels, and modern breakwaters.

Below the surface, however, this architecture creates a cycle of financial vulnerability.

When Port assets are financed through rigid, foreign-denominated debt, the pressure to service that debt often overrides the Port’s primary economic mandate, which is to lower the cost of doing business.

High debt-servicing costs force Port authorities to maintain punitive tariff structures, expensive regulatory charges, and inflated berthing fees.

Consequently, while the infrastructure appears world-class, the Port becomes economically uncompetitive, driving shipping lines to cheaper regional alternatives and defeating the purpose of the initial investment.

To break this loop, Nigeria must confront a glaring fiscal paradox sitting right inside its balance sheet: the architecture of the Nigerian Ports Authority’s (NPA) internal revenue framework.

As revealed in recent National Assembly budget defenses under Managing Director Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, the NPA is projecting a staggering ₦1.489 trillion in internally generated revenue (IGR) for the 2026 fiscal year, hot on the heels of generating nearly ₦2 trillion in 2025.

The agency is a financial powerhouse, generating enormous wealth from ship dues, cargo fees, and concession tariffs.

Yet, because of rigid fiscal remittance laws, a massive chunk of this liquidity is swallowed directly by the federation’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) and swept straight into the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

The NPA is effectively treated as a cash cow to finance federal budget deficits rather than being allowed to legally retain and reinvest its own earnings back into the infrastructure that generates them.

Forcing an agency to remit massive sums to the federal treasury while simultaneously asking it to borrow foreign capital or beg for funding via the Central Bank just to dredge a channel or rebuild a collapsing berth is an unsustainable contradiction.

True financial independence requires a sweeping legislative rethink of the Fiscal Responsibility Act to allow the NPA to establish a dedicated, ring-fenced infrastructure retention fund.

If the agency could legally retain just 20 to 30 percent more of its trillions in actual collections specifically for a Port Modernization Sinking Fund, it could fully self-finance the urgently needed overhauls of the 100-year-old Apapa Port and the decaying infrastructure at Tin Can Island without adding a single dollar of foreign debt to Nigeria’s sovereign balance sheet.

Furthermore, this internal liquidity could be used as equity to issue local currency maritime infrastructure bonds on the domestic capital market, allowing Nigerian pension funds to invest in an asset class that generates predictable, long-term, inflation-hedged cash flows.

Ultimately, breaking the anchor of dependency requires moving past the illusion that a nation must always look outward or borrow its way to maritime dominance.

True Port efficiency cannot coexist with a system that starves its primary trade gateway of operational liquidity in the name of national revenue extraction.

As Nigeria positions itself to capture the trade volumes of a developing continent, its leadership must realize that financial engineering is just as critical as civil engineering.

We must design financing models that allow the maritime sector to feed itself first before feeding the national treasury.

Until we cut the chains of debt-heavy external financing and reform our internal revenue retention laws, our Ports will not function as engines of economic liberation, but rather as highly sophisticated toll gates filtering both national wealth and foreign debt back to external creditors.

Chief Ibrahim Nasiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja

Headlines

NPA: Starving the goose that lays the golden eggs

Chief Ibrahim Nasiru

Tomorrow, on Monday Discourse, Ibrahim Nasiru looks at what he describes as the paradox in the financing system of the Nigerian Ports Authority( NPA).

An agency which lays the golden eggs that feed the nation, yet has to borrow from external creditors to fix its infrastructures.

On Monday Discourse, Nasiru advises government to rethink Nigeria’s Port Financing Strategy

“The NPA is projecting a staggering ₦1.489 trillion in revenue for 2026. Yet, why are we still looking outward to borrow billions of dollars for Port Modernization?

“The truth is, Nigeria’s Ports are trapped in a fiscal paradox.

“We treat the NPA as a cash cow to fund federal deficits, sweeping its massive trillions into the central treasury, while leaving our 100-year-old Ports to starve of the vital liquidity needed for self maintenance.

“Forcing an agency to bleed cash to the treasury while begging foreign creditors for infrastructure loans is an unsustainable contradiction.

“If we are serious about the Blue Economy, it’s time for a legislative rethink that allows internal revenue retention for a dedicated Port Modernization Fund.

Read Nasiru’s analysis on why Nigerian Ports must feed themselves before they can sustainably feed the nation.

Keep a date with Nasiru on Monday Discourse tomorrow ,Monday, June 1st, 2026.

It’s a must read