It seems to be a financially unfavourable year for Inland Container Nigeria Limited as the Nigerian Shippers’ Council has directed the firm to cover 70 percent of liabilities amounting to $72,777 following a dispute arising from a damaged bean export. This shows that the firm is in debt of over N116m using the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) official dollar rate of N1,602.797 per dollar.
The council in a statement, said the directive was its resolution on a complaint of two damaged containers of black-eye beans exported to Jebel Ali Port, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, shipped from Kaduna Inland Dry Port by USBAB MultiChoice Limited. According to the council, USBAB, the exporter, had attributed the damage to the delays allegedly caused by the inland port terminal ‘ICNL’ and the shipping line, Maersk Nigeria Limited.
The Managing Director of USBAB MultiChoice Limited, Mr Usman Ahmad On Tuesday in a letter of complaint received via the NSC’s port office in Kaduna, stated that two export containers of cowpea black eye beans were damaged and pegged the value of the beans at $104,111.75.
Ahmed stressed that while the total terminal and documentation cost was N1.65m, the exporter identified delay by ICNL and Maersk Line as responsible for the damage and requested the Council’s intervention for a refund of the loss.
“If the cargo was shipped on schedule, having paid all necessary charges to ICNL from the beginning of the transaction, the damage would have been avoided,” the USBAB boss said.
The complainant also denied receiving any notification from either the Federal Produce Inspection Agency or ICNL on the recommendation that fumigation should be repeated after the expiration of 21 days as contained in the Certificate of Quality, Fumigation, Good Packaging Materials, and Weight.
According to a statement by NSC, the exporter presented additional claims received from the importer in Dubai and other documents as it sought the council’s assistance in recovering all funds spent on the beans and the export process.
However, the shippers’ council explained that it held tripartite meetings at the Kaduna Port Office where all relevant parties, USBAB MultiChoice Limited, Kaduna Inland Dry Port/ ICNL, FPIS, Anglia International Services Ltd (Pre-shipment Agent), and the NSC complaints team before amicably resolved the complaint.
The chairman of the meeting and Deputy Director of Kaduna Port Office, Mr Paul Garnva, welcomed all parties to the meeting and informed that Kaduna Port Office regulates the Dry Port and protects shippers in terms of cost, effective, and efficient service delivery.
He noted that since the commencement of operations, over 16 sets of 16,000 twenty-foot equipment unit import containers have been cleared, while over 50 TEU export containers have been handled.
Relying on documents presented by all parties for its investigation, the council observed that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency put on hold for almost one month; even as it sought empirical evidence to authenticate when both Maersk Line and NDLEA informed the terminal as well as when they engaged NDLEA for the release of the containers.
FPIS also gave its explanation on which of the agencies in the export clearance chain is in charge of moisture because the space for moisture content of commodity on the certificate was blank.
The council also raised issues such as “delays in trying to correct the Bill of Lading of the damaged cargo; sought to know from the pre-shipment agent, the type of container most suitable for export of agricultural produce; and who is to advise on the packaging of all export cargoes?”
Responding, the representatives of Anglia International Services Ltd, the pre-shipment agent, Messrs Bodam Sammy, and Hyacinth Louis, informed the meeting that “they received the beans and inspected them in line with their mandate,”
They listed some of their responsibilities to include ensuring that documentation and goods declared by the exporter have no disparity, ensuring that the Nigeria Export Supervision conformity with the goods declared, proper documentation, and submission of report of inspection to their head office for issuance of Clean Certificate of Inspection.
In this instance, the pre-shipment agent noted everything was properly done as a thorough check was carried out on the bags and the type of beans in line with the physical examination.
The FPIS representative, Mr Usman Suleiman, also stated he inspected the beans and found them to be well-dried without stones and certified them to be of exportable quality.
He equally posited that he fumigated the two containers and further pointed out that the only thing he observed was that during stuffing, the containers were not properly dressed and he raised an observation, but ICNL responded that the containers would not stay long at the terminal.
Meanwhile, he added that if the dressing was to be done, it would not have been possible to move the containers that day to Lagos as desired by the exporters.
ICNL, represented by Messrs. Rotimi O. and Salami Rasaq, stated that they received the cargo at Kaduna Inland Dry Port and transported it to Apapa Port, Lagos, within 15 days.
They also stated that the exporter commended the processing of documents after the beans had arrived at KIDP.
ICNL also explained that during stuffing, the FPIS officials drew their attention to the need to dress the containers with dry papers and bags, but the representative of the exporter, Ahmed, insisted the stuffing should continue.
They added that the trucks conveying the goods left Kaduna for Lagos, but on arrival, they could not access the port immediately due to Maersk Line’s policy, which only allows trucks to access the port on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
ICNL also noted that NDLEA delayed the containers to a great extent and neither Maersk Line nor NDLEA informed them on time as the consignment missed two vessels that it was previously scheduled for.
After careful assessment of all the documents submitted during the previous tripartite meetings, the legal advice received from the council’s Directorate of Legal Services as well as a review of the role both parties played in the transaction, the council resolved that the liability-sharing formula should be 70 per cent for Kaduna Inland Dry Port (ICNL) being the appointed terminal operator and forwarder with the responsibility to ensure that the cargo is transported and delivered in safe and good condition, while 30 per cent for the exporter, (USBAB MultiChoice Limited) for failure to heed experts’ advice on how to properly preserve the beans and prevent it from damage.
The parties were, however, grateful for the council intervention, but ICNL requested the council to review the liability-sharing formula.