ANLCA Blasts MSC Shipping MD for Citing 4% FOB Charge to Justify Tariff Hike

—Says Remark Broke Down Meeting

The Coordinator, Western Zone of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, Mr. Femi Anifowose, has slammed the Managing Director of Mediterranean Shipping Company Nigeria, Mr. Jake Iosso, over his controversial reference to the 4 percent Free On Board (FOB) charge during a tense meeting with freight forwarders in Lagos.

Anifowose said the MSC Nigeria boss, on Wednesday, aggravated an already heated engagement by citing the 4 percent FOB charge as justification for the disputed tariff increase, describing the remark as provocative, insensitive and completely disconnected from the realities facing port users.

Earlier, the National Public Relations Officer of ANLCA, Mr. Emmanuel Onyeme, had taken the MSC management to task, accusing the company of prioritising revenue over service delivery and ignoring the harsh realities confronting freight forwarders and truck operators.

According to Onyeme, the leadership of MSC Nigeria must move beyond boardroom decisions and take practical steps to understand what stakeholders are going through, especially the persistent delays in container drop-off and the growing problem of empty containers blocking access roads to the ports.

He questioned whether the company’s leadership had ever inspected the roads leading to the ports or monitored how long empty containers remain on the roads after they are dropped by truck operators, stressing that freight forwarders are being used to generate revenue while their operational struggles are ignored.

In response to these queries, the Managing Director of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) Nigeria, Mr. Jake Iosso, stated that when Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) increased its Free On Board (FOB) value by 4 percent, he did not see any freight forwarders protest on the streets or at the ports.

The MSC Nigeria boss also recommended that the aggrieved freight forwarders should try other shipping companies if they weren’t satisfied with his services likening the shipping space to telecommunications sector with MTN, Glo and Etisalat offering variety.

Speaking with journalists afterwards, Anifowose said the reference to the 4 percent FOB charge by the MSC Nigeria boss was not only insensitive but also deeply offensive to stakeholders who are already battling rising operational costs at the ports.

He argued that a private shipping company cannot compare its tariff policies with the actions of the Nigeria Customs Service, which introduced the 4 percent FOB charge as part of government policy and revenue reform, not as a profit-driven commercial decision.

Anifowose added that the comment immediately angered freight forwarders at the meeting, as it appeared the MSC Nigeria boss was trying to justify the company’s tariff increment by hiding behind the 4 percent FOB charge imposed by the government.

He described the statement as one of the major reasons the meeting broke down, stressing that such remarks showed a clear disregard for the millions of Nigerians who would ultimately bear the burden of higher shipping charges through increased prices of goods in the market.

The ANLCA Western Zone Coordinator also faulted the suggestion that dissatisfied freight forwarders should simply switch to other shipping lines, insisting that the maritime sector cannot be run on insensitive comments and profit-driven decisions alone.

Meanwhile, the ANLCA Zonal Coordinator maintained that the association would continue to resist any tariff increase that is justifiable, even as he commended the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) for directing an immediate suspension of all new tariffs by shipping companies.