…As Okaga reels out Authority’s efforts to facilitate, promote trade
In a bid to facilitate trade and boost the economy, the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA has automated all shipping documentation thereby reducing documents processing time from about two weeks that it used to be in the past to less than two hours now.
The Port Manager of Lagos Port Complex, Apapa, Charles Okaga who disclosed this in his goodwill message at the Breakfast Meeting organized by the Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria, MARAN in Lagos yesterday with the theme, “Trade Facilitation and President Tinubu’s Economic Agenda: Matters Arising”, stated that if everything was in place, processing of shipping documents should not exceed two hours as at today.
Okaga further disclosed that the Authority, in carrying out the federal government’ directive, had created an Export Processing Terminal, EPT to encourage and facilitate export trade in the country.
He said, “There is a law for that, it is a directive from the government and the intention of the people who conceived this is that everything that has to do with export must start and finish at the Export Processing Terminal. So, the Export Processing Terminal, in its way, is taking the port to a dry land and once a cargo leaves the port, it is assumed that that cargo is shipped once it reached the terminal.
“And to also support the government initiative, the Nigeria Customs Service created a dedicated command for export and that has taken off in Lillypond and we are proud to say between 2022 and 2024, there’s tremendous increase in export and if you can Google the NBS website, for the first time in a long time, we had a positive balance of trade with regards to exportation.”
The Apapa Port Manager also observed that it was with the support the agency received from the stakeholders that it was able to clear the port access road,making commuting to and fro the ports to be smooth and pleasurable.
“This time last year, we normally have an average of 40, 50, 60 container trucks entering the port by road but as at today, we have days that we have 122 trucks carrying 240 or so boxes into the port. It’s a step forward and our import increased, using 2022 as baseline, we have had about 50 percent increase over the value of 2022 in 2024 and 15 percent increase over the value of 2024 over that of 2023.
“So, using 2022 as a baseline, there’s improvement. So, what it means is that all the policies that were deployed to ensure that there is smooth movement of export are working. The reason why I am concentrating on export is when we are talking about revamping the economy, if we are talking about Renewed Hope which is a major agenda of this current government, we should look at how Nigeria is competing and I am speaking because these are statistics, and verifiable facts.
“And what we have also done, as I have said earlier, to improve ease of doing business and trade facilitation is forum like this where real port stakeholders sir down together to identify fault lines, we also sit down together to identify solutions and I will say that stakeholders have been very cooperative”, he added.
Okaga explained that NPA introduced barge movement to improve multi-modalism in the ports even as he maintained that barge had also come to stay and they were supporting tremendously, the movement of cargo in and out of the port. “These are events of trade facilitation”, he submitted.
He recalled that in past, officials of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS used to mount road blocks at the gates to the ports which according to him, posed a serious challenge and created problems for cargo exit at the gates.
“But as at today, the friction of events of customs creating problems for cargo exit at the gate has drastically reduced. We are not saying they are no longer there and we are not saying we can’t make improvements but those problems are not as endemic as they used to be.
“We are also engaging with government on this issue of trade facilitation and I am also proud to announce to this house that the customs resident commands in the port have been told to hands off anything that has to do with export. So, when an export cargo is cleared from Lillypond and released to go, that cargo will no longer have any form of interference with local customs. So, this is also a benefit from stakeholders engagement and from the preparedness of government agencies to key into government operations.”
He revealed that the Apapa port where he presides as the Port Manager operated 24 hours cargo delivery adding that the gates were opened 24 hours leading to improved flow of cargo in and outside of the port.
He continued, “Infrastructure around the port, you have the roads which are not in very good condition but the contract for some portions of the road particularly from Costain to Ijora SIFAX area has been awarded by the Federal Ministry of Works. This also is not under the control of the Nigerian Ports Authority but the Authority has been engaging at the highest level to ensure that the roads around the ports are fixed.
“We have seen the situation around Area B and the alternative road around the Leventis area that are very bad, we also implore other stakeholders to continue to highlight this issue so that the right attention can be drawn to the port area.
“Movement of cargo by rail has improved. Last year, we had about 9,000TEUs but as at now, half year 2024, we have had over 10,000TEUs by rail and it’s working.”
Photo: Charles Okaga, Port Manager, Lagos Port Complex, Apapa.
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