Shippers Council Fixes Deadline to Abolish N16bn Annual Container Deposit

After several setbacks and following assurances by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) has said it will finally abolish container deposit by the end of June this year.

Executive Secretary/CEO of the NSC, Hassan Bello who disclosed that at a media briefing in Lagos, said Nigerian shippers paid a whooping N16 billion as container deposit in 2018 alone.

Bello, said the figures for 2019 and 2020, which the NSC will soon make available are not far from that of 2018, indicating that Nigerian shippers paid over N48 billion as container deposit in three years.

Container-deposit also known as a deposit-refund system, is the collection of a monetary deposit on certain containers at the point of sale and/or the payment of refund value to the consumers.

When the container is returned to an authorised redemption center, or retailer in some jurisdictions, the deposit is partly or fully refunded to the redeemer who is presumed to be the original purchaser.

According to Bello, “We are sure of this new deadline because we have stakeholders on our side.

“We are talking with stakeholders, which include the shipping companies who are the owners of the containers. On the regulatory side, we are working with NAICOM and we have called individual insurance companies.

“Some of the insurance companies have already written us that they want to undertake the insurance and the shipping companies are happy about that.

“As we speak, a meeting is going on between NSC, NAICOM and other partners. We are actually thinking of the best way forward. There will be a process flowchart that will talk about registration, which take care of the empty containers that are being dumped all over the place.”

Bello also assured that the NSC will continue to ensure the smooth running of the port as it did during the COVID-19 lockdown.

He said the port automation that the NSC was working hard to achieve would put an end to port congestion, Apapa traffic gridlock and corruption at the port.

“Port automation will also stop revenue leakages, corruption and make Nigeria’s ports to be more competitive,” he added.

While praising the federal government on its effort to develop new deep seaports in the country, he said the Lekki Deep Seaport will be the game changer for Nigeria and help the country define its role in the transportation sector.

“The Lekki Deep Seaport will no doubt justify the need for Public Private Partnership (PPP) in infrastructural development, “he said.

He said the NSC has gone far in its quest for port automation adding that reports from major terminal operators showed that they are fully digitalised.

“They are commending the Shippers Council for what we are doing to promote port efficiency in Nigeria. Payments at some terminals now are been done online, some terminals have achieved 70 to 80 per cent automation.

“The second phase is the integration of systems with banks and government agencies like the Nigeria Customs Service (NSC),” he said.