8 Reasons for delay in delivery of goods shipping to Nigeria

8 Reasons for delay in delivery of goods shipping to Nigeria

The main purpose of door to door shipping is to avoid any delay in delivery of goods at country of destinations. Most importers prefer to contract their consignment to a single freight forwarding company. This is action always give no room for any delay in delivery because the same freight company can handle pick-up services, shipping and delivery of the goods at the consignee door steps.

In contrast to the below purpose, delay in delivery of goods often occur due to some reasons. These reasons are most time freight forwarding companies cannot explain the cause of such delay in delivery.

The followings are the common reasons for delay in delivery of goods in Nigeria:

• Money Transfer delay between financial institutions
• Pickup schedule delay from the suppliers and shippers
• Airline flight schedule
• Estimated Time of Arrival
• Cargo discharge delay at Port terminal and storage facilities
• Customs service examination process
• Handling company delay
• Warehousing sorting delay
• Nigeria transportation systems.

First of all, I want you to understand that the list reasons are common causes of delay in delivery of goods in Nigeria. There may be others reasons that may cause delay. At times, it may be under declaration of goods value with the customs or the shipment may be prohibited goods by Nigeria customs services.

Money Transfer delay between financial institutions in Nigeria and abroad

Most freight forwarding companies in Nigeria use their domiciliary accounts of dollar, Euro and Pounds Sterling. Most time, money transfer instructions are delay by some hours (72 hours).  The money transfers between two countries always go through some processes. Due to days interval that Money transfer will take before it takes effect, it may cause delay in delivery of goods in Nigeria.

Moreover, incorrect information on the money transfer banking details will cause pending of the fund transfer. The receiving bank will not be able to receive the funds. Hence, the company that wants to render pickup service at country of departure will not proceed without confirming money in bank account.

Pickup schedule delay from the suppliers and shippers

Pickup service may delay cargo delivery if the shippers or the suppliers are not answering calls or not giving unfavourable pickup schedule time. The following can cause cargo Pickup delay:

• Distance of pickup location from the shipping company location
• Availability of the suppliers
• Uncertainty of the dimension and weight of the goods
• Improper packaging from supplier to avoid damages and breakage while moving the goods to terminal warehouse.

Airline flight and shipping line voyage schedule

Another reason that causes delay in cargo delivery in Nigeria is waiting for airline and shipping line schedule. Most companies that offer door to door shipping don’t have their own ships or cargo airplanes. They have to work according to the schedule of the shipping companies that will move the goods out of the country. The only process that they follow is to conduct proper documentation of the goods. The shipping or airline companies will move the consignee goods when it is time for flight and voyage. At times, this causes delay of fast cargo delivery in Nigeria.

Estimated Time of Arrival

Estimated Time of arrival (ETA) of goods may change due to some reasons. The airlines and shipping line companies may delay cargo delivery because of the following reasons:

• Bad weather conditions from country of origin
• Cargo airplane technical issues
• Stopover in other countries
• Other security reasons like terrorism, political crises in country of destination or origin

Cargo discharge delay at Port terminal and storage facilities

At times, when an airplane, ship gets to airport and port terminal respectively, off-loading may not start immediately due to some reason by ports authorities. It may take up to a day before off-loading commence in some ship or airplane. The issue can cause delay in delivery of goods.

Nigeria Customs service examination process

Delay in Inspection activities of government agencies on imported goods at times can cause delay in cargo delivery. Most time, the delay at this stage is the discrepancies of information of imported goods. The delay may cause the goods to incur demurrage charges on the goods. It will cause both extra cost and delay in delivery. The following are the causes of delay with government agencies:

• Nigeria customs online serve may be run down for hours. This will cause delay in release of goods with inspection act document from releasing customs officer.
• Discrepancies in value declaration of the goods
• Incomplete documents (Form M, PAAR, MSDS) and certificates (SONCAP, Import permit) from agencies like NAFDAC, SON, Quarantine agencies
• Contraband goods
• Inappropriate HS CODE declaration on Form M

Delay in goods transfer to Cargo Handling Company, Port Terminal, Warehousing goods sorting

With my experience, containers transfer to port terminal can go through delay. The following can cause containers transfer delay:

• Congestion at port terminal with containers
• Bad road networks within the ports environment.
• Perceive insecurity while transferring the containers to appropriate terminal or bonded terminal for dispatch.

When the imported goods is Less container Load, goods off-loading and sorting may take time. All the goods loaded inside containers will be separated for customs agents’ identification of the goods with Bill of lading number.

Nigerian transportation systems and security of the goods

Moving goods to the warehouse after goods have been released by customs and government agencies from airport or seaport may experience delay due to bad road network. The bad road status in Nigeria can cause mechanical faults on the truck or delivering bus. Some trucks can stop working on the road. Moreover, the safety of the goods of  on the truck is not sure due to insecurity issues in Nigeria. It may take days or hour behind schedule time before the cargo will be delivered to the importers.

In conclusion, importers and freight forwarding companies should consider the basic reason for delay in goods delivery in Nigeria. Most time, we can avoid these delays by getting proper planning of the importation and getting all documents ready before commencing shipping of goods to Nigeria. I believe this will give most importers insights on the reasons and causes of delays of their cargo delivery in Nigeria.