VIN: Nigeria loses N200bn as clearing agents continue protest

Following protests by freight forwarders and customs brokers at the Lagos Port, which began at the weekend, over N200 billion may have been lost, as port activities remained paralyzed as of Wednesday evening.

Port expert and President of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, said the N200 billion is a rough estimate, saying when the full assessment of losses by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Terminal Operators and others are computed the loss may not be less than N300 billion.

According to him, the protests would not have been necessary if the NCS had carried port operators along during the formulation of the policies.

The protests are to register the port operators’ disapproval of the newly introduced Vehicles Identification Number (VIN) valuation introduced by the NCS on all imported vehicles

“There is a need for urgent resolution of this crisis because the country can ill-afford this kind of disruption of business activities at this critical point when the country is recovering from the effects of the COVID-19pandemic. The port is the gateway into our economy,” Amiwero said.

He explained that the protest which started at the Tin Can Island Port, entered its fifth day yesterday, paralyzing all Lagos ports.

The protests are to register the port operators’ disapproval of the newly introduced Vehicles Identification Number (VIN) valuation introduced by the NCS on all imported vehicles.

The protesters are calling for the stoppage of the VIN valuation policy because they claim its estimates are outrageous and unrealistic.

It was observed on Wednesday evening that most offices at the Customs Processing Unit were locked, with some of the workers around saying no freight forwarder had come forward for containers in the last five days.

The entire environment remained tense as angry-looking Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers were all over the place stopping visitors and their members from accessing the terminals for any cargo clearing business.

The two gates into TinCan Island Port were manned by young men suspected to be clearing agents ensuring that there was no vehicular or human movement in and out of the ports.

However, the Public Relations Officers of both the Tin Can Island Customs and PTML command, Uche Ejesime and Muhammud Yakubu said the matter is being addressed at the Customs Headquarters in Abuja and the areas of disagreement with the protesting clearing agents would soon be resolved.