N29bn paid on vehicle shipments annually –Report

[Mirror]

The dwindling fortunes of indigenous ship owners in Nigeria are taking a worsening dimension as a recent report indicates that Nigeria loses in excess of $182 million (N29.1billion) in terms of freight paid on vehicles imported into the country.

This is basically due to the fact that no Nigerian entity owns or operates an ocean going cargo vessel including Roll-On-Roll-Off (RORO) ships and importers have to depend on foreign shipping lines to bring in goods.

Following the demise of the Nigerian National Shipping Line, NNSL, Nigeria's former national carrier, which at a time had over 44 ocean-going vessels on her fleet, but all were lost to mismanagement and excessive government interference such that the country does currently not have any ship even to lift her abundant crude oil.

Registrar of Chartered Institute of Shipping, Dr. Alex Okwuashi, who spoke in an interview in Lagos, disclosed that it costs between $500 to $700 to ship a unit of vehicle, however, regretted that Nigeria loses several billions of naira due to the inability of her national to participate in the carriage of the consignments.

"It is regrettable that Nigeria does not have a RORO or any other ocean going vessel for that matter to participate in the carriage of these vehicles, especially since in the 1970s," he stated.

Import statistics by the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, for the 2012 shows that a total of 130, 000 units of motor vehicles were imported into the country between January-June of that year, which makes N14.6 billion ($91 million) for the period.

This figure, however, increased marginally in the second half of the year thus bringing to a total of over N29.1billion ($182 million) for the 2012 fiscal year.

In addition to the massive loss revenue in terms of freight on RORO operations, Nigeria also loses huge sums in terms of crude oil freight and other general cargo. For instance, statistics shows that though Nigeria generates more than $5 million daily on crude oil freight at an average freight rate of $2.5 per barrel, less than two per cent of this revenue is retained within the country due to the fact that the country does not have any tanker vessel to participate in this lucrative trade.

Analysis also shows that the 13-member countries of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, have a total of 134 tankers, Nigeria, which is the sixth largest producer has only two, which are used for storage instead of lifting crude oil.

National Mirror