Shippers Council Approves Tariff Increase for Shipping Lines, Sets to Review ETO Call-up Charges January 2026

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The Nigerian Shippers Council has said that it has approved an increase in charges for shipping companies in Nigeria, even as it tasked the companies to carryout sensitization of its customers before effecting the increases.

This is even as the Council has disclosed plans to review charges of the ETO electronic call-up system operated by Truck Transit Park Limited in collaboration with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)

Even though details of the shipping tariff increments was not given, the Shippers Council’s Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, Dr Pius Akutah during a stakeholders meeting at the Council’s headquarters in Apapa on Friday, said the Council as the Port Economic Regulator is aware of the planned increment and it sanctioned it.

Dr Pius Akutah who was represented at the meeting by the Director of Regulatory Services, Mrs Margaret Ogbonna said “They have been asking for this review since the beginning of the year 2025.

“We have been appealing to them to step it down because at the beginning of last year, there were so many issues of inflation in the economy, foreign exchange fluctuations, and they too are working in our environment.

“Towards the end of the year, we reviewed some, but not all the nomenclatures of charges, but those that have been impacted by the indices affecting you and I in our personal lives.

“So, for those ones, we approved a marginal increase, but they are to first of all carry their customers along and discuss it first. Two of them have carried out these discussions and said the customers now understand the need for that marginal increment”

Dr Akutah also said that the Council has been inundated with complaints on the arbitrary increases in the Eto Call-Up tickets for trucks entering into the ports. He assured the stakeholders that the Council has began engagements with the Nigerian Ports Authority and TTP in order to resolve the matter.

“We have heard about the Eto Call-Up ticket charges, we have invited TTP, we have invited NPA for discussions over it, TTP came but NPA didn’t come.

“We are aware that when they started, the charges was N10,000, but what we are hearing now is that apart from the increase in charges, there are other syndicate groups playing out at the port gates.
“By early next year, you would hear about our resolution becauee we have started engagement, we cannot shave anybody’s head in their absence, but before the end of January, we would be looking at the issue of these charges that we have already seen” he said

He urged the stakeholders to endeavour to transmit these charges to the Council in order for her to study the nomenclatures.

“By January, the Council is set to look into, and review the Eto Call-Up charges, but we would appreciate if we can get some of those invoices so that we would not be speaking out of rumor, we want evidences that we can look at and challenge these nomenclatures” he said

Speaking on the payment of container deposits by importers and licensed customs agents, the Shippers Council boss said the agency is engaging the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), in order to ensure that container deposits are replaced with container insurance as stated in the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025.

“The container deposit is brought out of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025, where the law says that, in place of container deposit, there should be container insurance.

“On your behalf, we have been interrogating NAICOM which is the regulators to the insurance companies, the Act is not in the Marine and Blue Economy industry, it belongs to Ministry of Finance, so we have been engaging with them.

“The Act took effect from July 2025, we were the ones that stayed action on it by trying to understand what the policy would be to the importers and exporters. There should be a stakeholders engagement meeting where all the processes would be explained.

“The Act would help address several illegality in the sector, everyone would be forced to do the right thing. Taking containers to the holding bay and refusing to receive them, the shipping companies would now be held liable.
Some of the companies have actually stopped the collection of container deposits.