Hassan Bello, ES/CEO, NSC

The Nigerian Shippers’ Council, NSC, has won the case between the and shipping companies which have continued to undermine the Council’s directive on port/terminal charges.

Hassan Bello, ES/CEO, NSC

The Court of Appeal has declared the Shipping Line Agency Charges, SLAC,  illegal, null and void in the case between the ports economic regulator and the shipping service providers .
The Council had in 2014 reduced the amount collected on SLAC, an order which the shipping companies refused to obey.

Operating under the Association Shipping Lines Agencies, ASLA, the shipping companies had as a result gone to court to stop the ports economic regulator, but lost the case in December 2014.

They then headed to the Appeal Court along with the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria, STOAN, whose members were equally against the decision of the Council reversing storage charges collected by the terminal operators and the increase of the free storage period at the ports from three to seven days.

In the judgment read by Justice Adejumo, the Appeal Court ordered that the appellants should stop collecting SLAC.

The Court further ordered that the appellants should give account of what they collected from 11 years ago till date to the Shippers’ Council.

Apart from this, the appellants are also to make the refund with 21 percent interest per anum since 2006.

The Court ordered that the parties involved in the collection of SLAC are to bear respective costs.

Both service providers and the ports economic regulator have been in the Appeal Court for about two years and half after the judgment delivered by the Federal High Court in December 17, 2014 which was in favour of the Shippers’ Council.
Stakeholders had expressed dismay over the delay in the case, and had called for out of court settlement.
The NSC and the shipping service providers, were considering the out of court settlement option before the Appeal Court judgment.