Importers panic as more banks begin system upgrade

MANY cargo owners have expressed anxiety over lingering banking system upgrade even as findings revealed that some banks are still sending messages to their customers about ongoing upgrade.

In a chat with the Nigerian Tribune, the National President of Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers and Exporters Coalition, Chief Chukwu Osita, disclosed that some banks have started sending unsolicited messages to the emails of importers, informing them that their system upgrade will take time, thus giving these cargo owners sleepless nights over the accumulation of demurrages and storage charges at the ports.

According to the frontline clearing agent, “We are still struggling to clear the backlog of cargoes trapped at the ports due to banking upgrades by some banks like GTBank, Unity Bank, and Zenith Bank, but some banks are still sending messages that their own system upgrade will soon commence.

“Union Bank have just sent emails to its customers informing them of an impending system upgrade that might take long to fix. importers are worried because they are the ones paying. Every day, cargoes trapped accumulate N120,000 for both Demurrage and Storage Charges. If you calculate that by seven days, that is almost N900,000.

“It is jacking up the cost of cargo clearance and will at the end of the day make cost of goods at our markets keep going up because the importers are in business to make profit. They will transfer these incessant payments at the ports to the end users. It is natural.

“Why these banks don’t announce before commencing their system upgrade still baffles some of us. If they usually announce before starting, it will guide clearing agents on where to capture their jobs.

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“But after capturing, you will just observe that your payments are not reflecting. If your Customs Duty payments are not reflecting, then nothing happens on the job. The cargo will remain trapped inside the ports until the payment reflects.

“This, sometimes takes days, weeks and even months before payment reflects. Importers are lamenting when we take bills to them to pay. Government should help us find a means around this.”