The National Compliance Joint Taskforce of Licensed Clearing Agents, NCJTFLCA has alleged that several international shipping lines operating in Nigeria are engaging in systemic extortion and administrative sabotage that continues to frustrate clearing agents and importers across the country.
In a strongly worded statement delivered to journalists in Lagos, the National President of NCJTFLCA, High Chief Dr. Basil Chudi Nwolisa, alleged that major shipping companies, including Maersk Line, Pacific International Lines (PIL), Elder Dempster, and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), have deliberately created operational bottlenecks to delay refunds, withhold payment confirmations, and obstruct the release of cleared containers, all while profiting from the resultant chaos.
“They are running their businesses with our money,” Dr. Nwolisa stated. “When you apply for a refund, it can take one or two months. Meanwhile, they’re using that deposit to run their own operations.”
He described the refund delays as part of a broader scheme in which shipping firms exploit deposit funds advanced by agents and importers, leaving critical business transactions suspended for weeks.
According to him, some of these shipping firms operate with fewer than ten physical staff in the country, rendering timely customer service nearly impossible. Clients are left to rely exclusively on email correspondence, which, he said, is frequently ignored or significantly delayed.
“You send an email, and if it doesn’t go through, you’re ignored. If it does and others flood in, you’re not attended to in real time,” he lamented. “You’ll have 600 people calling just two or three lines.”
Payment confirmations, he noted, often take between two to three days to process, during which time demurrage charges continue to accrue, costs that are ultimately borne by importers. In some instances, clearing agents who cover costs on behalf of their clients are told that only importers are eligible to receive refunds, unless unofficial fees are paid.
“You pay from your own account, and when it’s time for a refund, they’ll say you didn’t pay it, that only the importer can collect,” he said. “But if you give them ₦20,000 or ₦30,000, the refund is magically processed. So who is really collecting?”
Dr. Nwolisa described the practices as deliberate economic sabotage, warning that the resulting financial strain is not limited to agents but extends to the broader Nigerian economy.
He further criticized what he called a “digital blackout” strategy, where companies allegedly cite technical failures, particularly network outages as excuses to delay transactions and increase storage fees.
“They will tell you there is no network after payment,” he said. “That network failure could last for five days, five days of demurrage multiplied by thousands of containers. That is billions of naira lost.”
He also pointed to the frequent rejection of documentation over minor typographical errors, such as misplaced commas or full stops, which forces clients to resubmit documents and endure further delays.
“If you make one mistake—a comma or a period—they’ll reject the letter. You’ll have to resend and wait again. It’s intentional,” he alleged.
In another startling example, Dr. Nwolisa recounted a case in which an importer was allegedly charged an ₦8 million deposit for a single container, a tactic he said is used to frustrate clients into abandoning their goods after which the container is quickly auctioned off.
“It is a racket,” he declared. “Once you can’t meet the outrageous deposit, they move to auction your container. We have seen it happen more than once.”
The group announced that it would be pursuing legal action against the concerned shipping lines. Dr. Nwolisa confirmed that petitions were already being prepared by the group’s legal team and would soon be submitted to the National Assembly and relevant regulatory agencies.
“We will no longer tolerate these anomalies,” he said. “If the shipping lines refuse to change, we have no option but to take legal action. This is not aggression, it is about getting justice.”
He also questioned whether some of the exploitation is being enabled by Nigerians with vested interests in foreign shipping firms, asking if the nation’s own elites were complicit in suppressing Nigerian businesses.
Dr. Nwolisa concluded by calling on the Federal Government, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, and the Ports Economic Regulator to urgently intervene and restore transparency, fairness, and efficiency to Nigeria’s import-export system.
“Nigeria is not a banana republic,” he said firmly. “We want fair business. Not harassment, not extortion. Let shipping companies be audited and made to adhere to standard practices.”