Black marketers causing frustration for NPA’s platform and inflating prices

Recent indications suggest that the electronic call-up system for truck movement in and out of the port, which was introduced by the Nigerian Ports Authority and managed by its technical partners, Truck Transit Park Limited, may have been taken over by black marketers.

It has been reported that these black marketers have raised the prices for the call-up from the original N21,500 sold by TTP to approximately N150,000 per call-up.

The NPA had recently announced the temporary suspension of the release of flatbed trucks from Satellite truck parks to Pre-gate from entering various terminals inside the Lagos Port Complex.

According to the Secretary General of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners, Mr Sanni Muhammed, the prices of the call-up from TTP have remained unchanged.

He added that acquiring it from black marketers is very expensive.

“The charges for ETO have not changed, it is the black market ETO that has gone up. ETO call-up official charges for both bookings is N10,750. I booked a truck yesterday (Monday) and you can confirm from the invoice. If I match the truck to pre-gate, I will also pay N10,750,” Muhammed added.

He further elaborated, stating, “The problem is that there are some private pre-gate operators who generate call-up tickets they don’t need for their private trucks to access the ports. These call-up tickets eventually find their way to the black market and are sold at outrageous prices especially when there is traffic,”

Sanni expressed that the enforcement operatives, who are supposed to prevent such occurrences, have been compromised.

“When there is chaotic Traffic gridlock arising from terminal inefficiency, trucks couldn’t batch on time. The fear of losing terminal delivery orders makes some truckers go for black market call-ups generated by private pre-gate operators,” Sanni stated.

However, the Lilypond Chapter Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, Mr Femi Olabanji, attributed the increase in haulage prices to corruption.

“Today, people are buying the call-up for as much as N150,000 from TTP for the main truck park. We are begging the government to look into this problem, the call-up system which we are doing for N27,000 cannot be sold for N150,000,” Olabanji said.

Meanwhile, in response to these claims, the Corporate Communications Manager of TTP Limited, Nancy Nnamdi, denied the rumors of an increase in charge for ETO in a statement issued on Tuesday.

She said, “TTP, the operator of the eto electronic call-up system is issuing this statement in response to recent media reports alleging corruption in the sale of eto tickets at Lagos Ports. We would like to categorically state that at no point has an eto ticket been sold for the reported amount of N150,000. The approved and standard pricing structure is transparent and fixed. Costs range from N10,750 and not exceeding 21,500 (VAT inclusive). This price depends on the parks or pre-gates that these trucks are electronically scheduled to go through before they are batched and released to progress to the port,”

Nnamdi explained that the primary issue with irregularities arose from the fact that truckers fail to affix their plate numbers on their vehicles.

“Consequently, this allows for the potential swapping of plate numbers between trucks, leading to resale of tickets at inflated prices. It is important to emphasize that these practices are not endorsed or facilitated by Trucks Transit Parks Ltd or the eto system,”

According to her, “The escalated costs reported were as a result of individual truckers engaging in fraudulent activities, reselling their own tickets at prices significantly above the standard rates. This is against the laid down standard operating procedure put in place by the Nigerian Ports Authority for the electronic call-up system for Apapa and Tincan ports,”

She expressed concern that the practice is detrimental to the industry and the interests of truckers in general.