…Seeks of diversion of cargoes to eastern ports
…Lists other measures
Weeks after calls by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for a state of emergency to be declare on the Lagos ports, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has lend its voice to the call.
The National President of NAGAFF, Chief Increase Uche who made the call in an exclusive interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos stated that no amount of piling, holding bays and task force operatives posted on the port access road would solve the current problem of congestion in the ports as well as the gridlock that had locked down Apapa permanently.
Uche added that for Nigeria to find a lasting solution to the current situations at the ports, the government should take a second look at the Lagos Ports comprising of Apapa and Tincan Island arguing that then two ports no longer meet the requirements for globalization in the sense that the very area where the ports were situated cannot allow for expansion as urbanization had already engulf the places.
While arguing that if there was room for further expansion of the two ports, even without rail connection to the ports coupled the poor access road network to the ports, there would have been a way out.
“For the fact that there is no way out, that is the more reason why no solution we would apply now will work out. And for government to get out of the current situation to which the entire economy has been subjected to, lots of cargoes are now trapped inside the ports, trucks cannot access the ports and cargoes that are trapped inside the ports cannot be moved even when they are loaded. So, because of this quagmire, the solution I see government should apply now is to first stop further discharge of cargo at these ports now.
“Government should take the bull by the horn, relax all the known shipping laws by declaring state of emergency at the ports because right now, the shipping lines are aware of this problem and shipping, once situations like this occur, either war situation or crisis of this nature that the vessel can no longer get to the port of destination to drop cargo, the next decision is for the Master Marina or the ship Captain to seek for a possible safe place nearby to discharge those cargoes as far as the vessel could safely get to.
“Cargoes destined to Lagos ports should be diverted to other ports in Nigeria, they should avoid Lagos ports for now so that the ones already trapped can be evacuated. There is nothing wrong with that in shipping parlance, international convention allows that vessels can do what is called deviation or diversion of cargoes where there is crisis”, he suggested.
The NAGAFF boss went to suggest that the Federal Government through the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) should set up a Presidential Task Force to move all the cargoes that had stayed at the ports for an upward of 90 days to the Government Warehouse in Ikorodu in line with Section 31 of Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) which he said allowed cargoes to stay for only 14 days at the port and thereafter, the terminal operator or the ports authority was expected to prepare a list of overtime cargoes and forward it to the Nigeria Customs Service which should make provisions to move those cargoes to government warehouse.
In his words,” Government should invoke its powers to move all the cargoes that have stayed 90 days inside the ports to government warehouse in Ikorodu, by so doing, the inventory buildup inside the port will be reduced and no more cargo is coming in because right now, what congested the port is that when these cargoes are dropped and then they are not moved as quickly as possible to the hinterland, they keep piling up and more are coming”.
He posited that the implication of government’s failure to move the overtime cargoes to its warehouse in Ikorodu was very enormous as cargoes that had stayed for more than three days at the ports would be accruing storage and rent charges as well as shipping companies’ demurrage which begins to count after five days thereby depleting the shippers’ investment even as he disclosed that there were cargoes currently at the ports that their owners can no longer clear within this very period of about two weeks because of storage rent and demurrages that have accrued on them.
He continued,” Another solution is that government should issue a standing order now that every truck laddened with empty container or export entering Lagos state meant for the seaport, should not be allowed to enter Lagos because the Highways are being blocked. They should stop them somewhere at Sagamu, somewhere along Lagos- Ibadan expressway so that they can control the ones already inside the city. They will only allow tankers coming to load fuel and empty trucks that can help to evacuate containers from the ports. Why they should not allow the ones with empty containers is that once they are getting these empty containers close to the ports, shipping companies have not provided holding bays.
“Another issue that would have reduced the number of containers hanging within the state is, had it been it was possible that government created a policy to ensure that any vessel that brings in laddened containers must take out the same number of empty containers before it sails because some of these vessels will come and go empty. But when government is able to take care of all these things, you will see all these things fizzle out gradually.
“Another area is for the government to look at the possibility of fast tracking the establishment of deep sea ports because all the ports that we have today are supposed to be turned to industrial ports because they are almost collapsing, urbanization has enveloped them that they cannot be expanded, even the road leading to the ports cannot be expanded and no amount of piling on this road will bring the succor required because we need modern infrastructure that will make provision of four lanes dual carriage way that will lead straight into the ports”.
He concluded by saying that the expectations on the part of the government were enormous because of bad planning adding that government should de-emphasize the use of politicians to run the port instead, it should make use of career officers to run the ports.
“Setting up of task forces or committees to handle such issues is not professional, it is not global practice. From the planning stage of the ports including implementation, career officers must be involved so that what is just taking place now will not happen again and when these vessels coming here are denied access to Lagos ports, they should be diverted to eastern ports”, he surmised.
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