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Reps,NSC seek truce between warring freight forwarders, shipping companies over tariff hike, as negotiation collapses

Gloria Odion, Maritime Reporter 
The lingering stand-off between the aggrieved freight forwarders and the shipping companies over the hike in service charges at the Nigerian ports is far from over as the peace talk brokered by the House Committee on Shipping Services was deadlocked.
It could be recalled that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has recently approved 30 percent increase in service charges by terminal operators and shipping companies to reflect the economic realities of the country.
However, the importers, through their agents, kicked against the increment, describing it as insensitive in the face of the crushing economic situation in the country.
After a sustained protest by the irate freight forwarders which resulted to the picketing of some shipping companies, the NSC suspended the implementation, urging the service providers to open negotiations and consultation with the aggrieved users of their services.
However, this apparently did not assuage the frayed nerves of the  freight forwarders who insisted that the level of increment be scaled down or a complete reversal of the hike,  a possibility both the Shippers’ Council and the Shipping companies rejected.
As the tension continued to escalate, the House Committee on Shipping Services waded into the matter and called for a stakeholders meeting in Lagos on Monday, April 20th, 2026 in a bid to dis-escale the tension.
At the meeting attended by all the relevant stakeholders including the NSC, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the shipping companies, parties to the tariff dispute seamed to maintain hardline stance on their positions.
Pius Akutah, the Executive Secretary of NSC, recounted why the Council granted the approval for increase in tariff due to the economic realities in the country and the fact that there has not been any hike in tariff in the past two years.
He however said in order not to trigger spiralling inflation , the Council granted tariff increase to the maximum of 30 percent.
Akutah disclosed that the council was forced to suspend the implementation of the increase due to the resistance of the freight forwarders.
However, the shipping companies stated that the 30 percent increase was not inadequate as it falls below the inflation mark in the country.
The service providers therefore sought for higher percentage in increment in order to reflect the economic realities in the country.
The Chairman of the Shipping Association of Nigeria (SAN), Boma Alabi, expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the talks, noting that no significant progress had been made.
She called for the establishment of a transparent and consistent tariff review mechanism, similar to frameworks used in regulated sectors such as telecommunications and energy.
The freight forwarders however rejected the call for higher percentage in tariff hike above 30 percent which they described as inordinate and insensitive.
A member of the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics (APFFLON) said stakeholders were unanimous in opposing the 30 per cent increment, warning that any further increase would worsen inflationary pressure and raise the cost of doing business at the ports.
“It is not acceptable to us or our importers. We have rejected the call as an act of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians, importers and clearing agents,” the freight forwarder declared.
Apparently sensing that none of the parties wanted to shift ground on their positions, the  Chairman, House Committee on Shipping Services, Abdusamad Dasuki, directed that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council should convene another meeting in a week’s time with the  two warring parties where all the grey areas should be resolved and their resolutions brought to an enlarged stakeholders meeting where a new date for the implementation of the new tariff would be finalized.
“We expect that at the next meeting, there will be a clear framework, including timelines and participation of regulatory representatives, to guide the process towards implementation,” Dasuki stated.
He added that a new implementation date for any agreed tariff adjustment would be announced after consultations are concluded.
Meanwhile, the NSC boss has advocated for an automatic tariff adjustment mechanism that would put an end to the manual practice that usually sparks off a crisis.
In his address during the meeting, Akutah disclosed that the Council is currently working on this automated system which would be transmitted to all the stakeholders.
“The second point would be the aspect of the automatic system for tariff adjustment, which the Nigerian Shippers’ Council is promoting.
“So rather than always have a manual process for tariff adjustment, let us have an automatic system.
“And in our country, most times when prices of things go up, they have to come down.
“But it is in our interest to have an automatic system whereby, when the indices arising from volatility
in exchange rates, general operational costs, like inflation, and all of those ones, would occur, at the higher margins, the adjustment can go up.
“And when they come down, or some of the necessary factors have changed for better, then the tariff should automatically adjust itself downwards.
 That is a process that is ongoing. And very soon, we will be sharing the technology component with the relevant stakeholders to look at it and to see what conclusions can be made to that platform” Akutah disclosed.
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Beyond The Communique: Can West Africa’s $27 billion port rhetoric Outrun gridlock?

The Monday Discourse with Nasiru 
The dust has settled on the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA) conference hosted by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in Lagos last week.
 For three days, 18th to 20th May 2026, Maritime Executives, Regional Ministers, and Portuguese Administrators traded optimism, signed agreements, and toasted to the future.
The headlines if not hallucinating, were intoxicating: a staggering $27 billion committed to Regional Port Infrastructure, grand declarations of transforming into sustainable “Blue Economy” engines, and lofty goals to replicate the seamless digital models of Rotterdam and Singapore.
Yet, for the average importer, shipping line agent, or haulage driver navigating the chaotic access roads of Apapa, Tin Can, or Luanda, the disconnect between boardroom rhetoric and dockyard reality remains jarring.
While the Lagos conference successfully demonstrated Nigeria’s diplomatic hosting prowess under the leadership of NPA Managing Director, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, it also exposed a deeper regional vulnerability.
West and Central African ports are masterful at planning, but historically abysmal at executing.
If this $27 billion infrastructure boom is to be anything more than a monumental paper tiger, regional leadership must pivot immediately from policy curation to aggressive, unforgiving execution.
On paper, the sub-region is undergoing a maritime renaissance. We are told of Guinea’s massive $20 billion Simandou-Morebaya project, Cote d’Ivoire’s $2 billion Port San Pedro expansion, and Nigeria’s own $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Sea Port, alongside fresh pledges to modernize aging brownfield terminals.
But a Port is not merely a collection of deep berths, breakwaters, and expensive gantry cranes. It is an intricate, living logistical ecosystem.
Building a multi-billion-dollar Deep-Sea Port while leaving the surrounding multimodal transport network broken is an exercise in futility.
Lekki Deep Sea Port, despite its state-of-the-art infrastructure, still struggles with optimal evacuation routes.
True regional competitiveness will not be won by the nation that signs the largest infrastructure contract; it will be won by the nation that successfully connects its berths to functioning rail lines, Inland Dry Ports (IDPs), and uncongested highways.
Until cargo can move from a vessel to an inland destination seamlessly, these multi-billion-dollar investments are simply monumentally expensive parking lots for containers.
The conference highly praised the “Rotterdam-Singapore data-exchange model” as the blueprint for eliminating West Africa’s notoriously high cargo dwell times.
 In Nigeria, officials proudly showcased the roll-out of the National Single Window initiative and the Port Community System.
But let us be objective: West African ports do not suffer from a lack of digital concepts; they suffer from a lack of institutional compliance.
For years, “Single Windows” have been launched, rebranded, and relaunched, yet manual interventions persist.
Why? Because automation directly threatens the lucrative, entrenched economies of corruption, extortive  human contact, and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
 Replicating Singapore requires more than buying expensive software; it requires the political will to strip corrupt agencies of their physical inspection monopolies.
If Customs administrations and border agencies can still demand the physical, manual opening of containers despite digital clearances, then the “Paperless Port” remains an expensive mirage.
A commendable takeaway from the Lagos summit was the celebration of Nigeria’s Deep Blue Project, which has successfully suppressed piracy in the Gulf of Guinea for three consecutive years.
This is a massive victory for regional security. However, security is only a facilitator of trade, not trade itself.
While the waters may be safer from pirates, the land corridors remain plagued by a different kind of piracy: systemic extortion at border checkpoints, overlapping regulatory charges, and severe cargo diversion.
It is an open secret that landlocked neighbors like Niger, Chad, and Mali often bypass geographically closer Nigerian ports in favor of Beninese, Togolese, or Ghanaian corridors.
 Why? Because the total cost of cargo clearance, measured in both time and bribes, makes Nigerian routes economically punitive.
Decentralizing operations to Nigeria’s Eastern Ports, as proposed by the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, will fail to yield results if the same predatory regulatory culture is simply exported from Lagos to Port Harcourt, Warri, Onne, and Calabar.
If the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa wants to avoid meeting next year to lament the same old problems, the AGENDA must change today.
First, the NPA and its regional peers must tie Port Key Performance indicators (KPIs) strictly to cargo dwell times, not revenue generation.
A Port’s primary job is efficiency, not tax collection. Second, the implementation of the National Single Window must be backed by executive enforcement that legally penalizes any agency insisting on manual intervention outside automated channels.
Finally, regional integration must move past the ECOWAS protocol paperwork. There must be a unified, digitized tracking system that allows a container cleared in Lagos to move to Niamey without facing a dozen predatory checkpoints.
The Lagos communique was a beautiful piece of literature. But literature does not offload vessels, clear containers, or lower the cost of doing business.
 West Africa’s maritime sector does not need more summits, boards, or committees. It needs an execution squad.
Until we match our boardroom eloquence with dockyard discipline, the “Ports of the Future” will remain a luxury we can only read about in conference brochures.
Chief Ibrahim Nasiru , a Public Affairs Analyst, writes from Abuja
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Beyond The Lagos Communique: Can West Africa’s $27 Billion Port Rhetoric Outrun Gridlock?

Ibrahim Nasiru
The Monday Discourse with NASIRU focuses on the take away from the just concluded PMAWCA board meeting in Lagos.
Last week, maritime leaders gathered in Lagos for the PMAWCA conference, celebrating a staggering $27 billion infrastructure boom and drawing up plans to replicate the seamless digital models of Rotterdam and Singapore.
But for the average importer, agent, or truck driver trapped in the chaos of Apapa or Tin Can, the disconnect is jarring.
West African Ports are masterful at planning, but historically abysmal at executing.
A multi-billion-dollar Deep Sea Port is just an expensive parking lot for containers if the surrounding rail and road infrastructure remains broken.
True competitiveness will not be won by the nation that signs the largest contract; it will be won by the nation that actually clears a container without corruption, extortion, or manual delays.
It is time to move past courtroom style policy curation and deploy an execution squad.
Read full details tomorrow on why West Africa’s maritime sector needs dockyard discipline over boardroom eloquence.
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Headlines

Sallah celebration: Osun govt offers free train ride to indigenes as NRC increases Lagos–Ibadan Train Trips for Sallah

Gloria Odion, maritime reporter 
The Osun State government has made full payment to the Nigerian Railway Corporation( NRC) for the use of its narrow gauge rail services to transport the indigenes of the state free of charge for the Sallah celebration.
The annual gesture was confirmed by the management of the Corporation while announcing a temporary increase  in train services on the Lagos–Ibadan Train Service (LITS) corridor for Tuesday, May 26, 2026, ahead of the Sallah celebration.
The NRC revealed that the Osun government free train ride will be on its narrow gauge corridor.
The special train will depart from Iddo Station, Lagos, on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, while the return trip from Osogbo to Lagos will take place on Thursday, May 28, 2026.
The service, which is usually operated during festive periods, is being sponsored by the Osun State Government through a paid arrangement with the Nigerian Railway Corporation to convey Osun indigenes free of charge for the Sallah celebration.
Meanwhile, the Corporation has announced an adjustment to its schedule on its Lagos–Ibadan Train Service (LITS) corridor for Tuesday, May 26, 2026, ahead of the Sallah
The temporary adjustment is aimed at accommodating the expected increase in passenger movement as many Nigerians travel to celebrate the festive season with their families and loved ones.
Under the special arrangement, the Corporation will operate six train trips on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, instead of the usual four trips currently operated on the corridor.
For the day, train departures from the Lagos end will be at 7:45am, 1:40pm and 4:00pm, while departures from the Ibadan end will be at 8:00am, 10:50am and 4:30pm.
The Management clarified that this arrangement is strictly temporary and applies only to the Sallah travel period.
 Immediately after the celebration, the normal Tuesday timetable of four trips will resume.
Similarly, the recently introduced Thursday six-trip operations will be temporarily adjusted next week, as only four trips will operate on Thursday May,  28th during the period under review.
The regular six-trip Thursday schedule will however resume the following week.
The NRC reassured passengers of its commitment to providing safe, efficient and reliable rail transportation services across the country and wishes all Nigerians a peaceful and memorable Sallah celebration.
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