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Car clearing cost planner

The duty is only the statutory half of landing a car. This planner covers the other half — the terminal, the shipping line, the agent, and the per-day charge that punishes delay — and keeps it visibly separate from the customs figure, because the two are set by different people and argued about in different offices.

The worked example: a car with customs charges of ₦3,185,400 (the small-tokunbo example from the duty calculator), cleared on day 9 with 5 free days at ₦15,000 a day: demurrage is 4 × ₦15,000 = ₦60,000, and the total payable in Nigeria before any other port charge is ₦3,245,400. Run it below.

Plan the port-side costs

From the duty calculator — or the figure on your assessment.

Given, the planner shows the full landed figure as well.

Demurrage — the charge for every day the car sits

The starting figures above (5 free days, ₦15,000 a day) are a common example, not a tariff — terminal terms differ. Edit them to match your terminal's bill.

Terminal handling, shipping-line release and agent fees together commonly run to about ₦300,000–₦800,000 per car at Lagos ports (market range from clearing guides, checked 12 November 2026). They are market charges — nothing on this page is a government tariff.

Why demurrage deserves its own line

Every other figure in a clearing budget is fixed once it is quoted. Demurrage is not: it is a meter running on a car you do not yet control, and the commonest reasons it runs — a valuation query, a missing document, an agent juggling forty files — are exactly the reasons a first-time importer cannot see coming. Budget the free days honestly, price the overrun before the car lands, and treat any quote that does not mention demurrage as incomplete. The clearing process guide walks the sequence from Form M to release, in order.

Questions

What does it cost to clear a car at a Lagos port, beyond the duty?

Beyond the customs charges themselves, budget for terminal handling, the shipping line’s release charges and a clearing agent’s fee. Together these commonly run to about ₦300,000–₦800,000 per car at Apapa, Tin Can Island and PTML (a market range from clearing guides, checked November 2026 — not a tariff). Demurrage comes on top if the car stays past its free days.

What is demurrage, and how fast does it grow?

Demurrage (and its cousin, storage) is the per-day charge for a car that has not been cleared and removed within the free days the terminal allows. At an illustrative ₦15,000 a day, clearing on day 9 instead of day 5 adds ₦60,000; a car stuck for a valuation dispute for three extra weeks adds over ₦300,000. It is the one clearing cost that grows while you wait, which is why the planner above treats it as its own line.

Are these port charges official tariffs?

No. Terminal handling and shipping-line charges are commercial charges set by the operators, and an agent’s fee is a negotiated price for a service. None of them is set by the Nigeria Customs Service, and none belongs inside a “customs duty” figure — which is why this planner keeps the statutory and market halves in separate columns, a split several duty calculators blur.