The number of containers passing through twenty-foot equipment units fell by 2.39% during the first quarter of 2024, a document from the Nigerian Ports Authority has shown.
Licensed customs agents attribute the country’s currency problem to the decline in container throughput during the first quarter of 2024.
The total container throughput for Q1 2024 was 396,083, down from 405,811 during the same period the previous year, according to the NPA.
The NPA also said that, in the first quarter of 2023, there were 150,926 export containers, while there were 254,884 laden containers arrived in the nation.
During the first quarter of 2024, 112,801 empty containers were registered, while 283,281 loaded containers were handled.
Despite the decline in container throughput, cargo throughput during the reviewed period exceeded that of the corresponding time in 2023.
In response, the Importers Association of Nigeria stated that the country was losing more than $500 million a year as a result of fluctuating exchange rates and pointed finger at the forex problem for the decline in container throughput.
In an interview with The PUNCH recently, Dr. Basil Nwaolisa, the association’s National Coordinator of Customs, Shipping, and Terminal Operations, bemoaned the fact that the cost of clearing consignments at the port had risen by 300 percent in just a single year.
He underlined that 60% of their members had stopped importing because of the currency problems, which posed a significant hardship to importers.
Lucky Amiwero, National President of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, also observed that because importation had dropped, markets were almost deserted.
He said:
TimesNow.com.ng reported that for the past three weeks, the Central Bank of Nigeria maintained the same exchange rate for import duties, despite the official FX rate being close to N1,485 per dollar.
Before collapsing on Monday, June 24, 2024, the FX rate had remained stable at N1,474 per dollar for the previous three weeks—the longest it had been since January 2024.
Following the most recent collapse of the value of the Nigerian Naira relative to the US dollar, importers would anticipate a change.
Proofreading by James Ojo Adakole, journalist and copy editor at TimesNow.com.ng.
Source: TimesNow.com.ng
