Clearing brokers on the nation’s seaports have voiced robust considerations over escalating demurrage costs attributable to an surprising financial institution server outage, severely disrupting port operations. The technical failure has stalled fee transactions important for cargo clearance, resulting in extended container storage and growing prices for importers and exporters.
Business insiders report that the financial institution’s server outage started early final week and has but to be totally resolved. This has prompted delays in processing funds for customs duties, port charges, and different costs. Consequently, containers stay on the port longer than scheduled, accumulating hefty demurrage charges that threaten to escalate logistics bills additional.
The clearing brokers beneath the aegis of the Africa Affiliation of Skilled Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON) additionally petitioned the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economic system, Wale Edun, over the persistent system downtime. Since September 1, 2025, they are saying it has crippled responsibility funds and inflicted enormous monetary losses on the buying and selling neighborhood.
In a letter signed by its nationwide president, Otunba Frank Ogunojemite, APFFLON argued that freight forwarders had been left stranded and importers stricken by losses of naira in demurrage and storage costs.
In keeping with APFFLON, the financial institution’s fee platform has been inaccessible for days, forcing cargoes to pile up at ports, disrupting provide chains, and irritating efforts to clear shipments on time.
The group lamented that regardless of repeated complaints lodged at each department and regional ranges, the affected financial institution has neither issued an official assertion nor supplied any contingency plan to cushion the consequences of the downtime.
“This unlucky scenario has crippled port operations, delayed cargo clearance processes, and led to cascading monetary losses operating into billions of naira in demurrage and storage costs. The continued silence and inaction within the face of this nationwide failure of service is deeply regarding and unacceptable.”
APFFLON urged the minister to launch a direct inquiry into the basis explanation for the extended service collapse, compel the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN) to carry responsibility assortment banks accountable for service reliability, and have interaction the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on different fee channels or momentary waivers for affected importers.
The affiliation additional demanded that the financial institution be held financially answerable for the damages incurred, warning that the scenario undermines the federal authorities’s ease of doing enterprise agenda whereas inflicting avoidable ache on already struggling Nigerian companies.
“This can be a systemic failure that has crippled our business and can’t be missed,” Ogunojemite declared, stressing APFFLON’s readiness to proceed supporting authorities commerce facilitation efforts however insisting that accountability have to be enforced.
