NPA makes N299bn revenues as businesses suffer from Apapa gridlock

Access into the major economic gateways, Apapa and Tin-Can Island seaports by motorists, commuters and port users, has again become a hard nut to crack as the traffic gridlock into the Apapa port city, worsened in the past few days, without any hope in sight.
This comes as the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said on Tuesday in Lagos, that it has grown its revenue profile in the 2017 financial year by 84.68 percent to N299.56 billion.
A statement issued on Tuesday and signed by Abdullahi Goje, general manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications of NPA, said that 2017 revenue of the authority, exceeded the 2016 figure of N162.20 billion by 84.68 percent.
According to him, the 2017 revenue was the highest generated by the Authority in the past five years.
Giving a breakdown of the 5-year revenue figure, Goje said that in 2013, the NPA generated the sum of N154.50 billion while the revenue increased to N159.30 billion and N180.50 billion in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
“The 2017 figure declared by the Authority is made up of revenues from traffic, harbours, administrative and other sources, and they amounted to N136.04 billion, N66.80 billion, N86.06 billion and N10.75 billion respectively,” Goje said.
Alarmingly, the traffic situation into Apapa has continued to increase by the day as majority of the trucks and trailers going to the seaports and oil tank farms littered all over the port city were forced to pass through Ijora-Apapa-Wharf road following the Federal Government failure to repair the bad portions of Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.
Analysts, who spoke to BusinessDay on this, expressed worry over the Federal Government’s lack of commitment to repairing the roads as well as ameliorating the plights of Apapa residents and port users, who spend the substantial amount of their daily man-hour on the road, in order to have access into Apapa.
The Federal Government, according to them, that generates trillions of Naira from the ports annually, has failed by not investing a fraction of that revenue into the development of road infrastructure leading to the ports.
Statistics has shown that, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it surpassed its revenue target of N1.2 trillion in 2017; the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) declared an annual revenue of N299.56 billion while agencies like the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), are yet to declare the billions of naira, generated from port business in the 2017 fiscal year.
Commenting on this, Tony Anakebe, a Lagos-based Customs Licensed Agents, said that the seaports in Nigeria are the goose the lay the golden eggs for the Federal Government, yet the government has failed to invest in development of port infrastructure especially roads.
Anakebe, who disclosed that many Nigerians had lost their lives due to the risk, involved in travelling on the bad roads in Apapa in the midst of tankers and trailers, said that government must wake-up to their responsibilities of fixing the roads and providing transit parks for heavy vehicles, if Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking must improve.
Recall that Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the NPA said recently on a live television interview on CNBC Africa that NPA surpassed its revenue target in the first quarter of 2017, following the gradual return of business activities to Nigerian seaports.
Usman promised that the substantial amount of the revenue will be dedicated to building and upgrading existing infrastructure around the ports while the remaining would go to the Federal consolidated revenue fund for national development.
“Government have refused to take decisive steps towards ameliorating the challenges commuters face in accessing Apapa rather they pile-up pressure on Customs and other agencies at the ports, to oppress shippers, who pay all the taxes with ridiculous tariff in order to generate more revenue,” Jonathan Nicole, President, Shippers Association of Lagos State, told our correspondent in a telephone interview.
He said that, the pressure to generate money from shippers was why Nigeria’s Customs tariff remains terribly high compared to tariff in neighbouring ports of Cotonou.
The poor condition of the access roads into Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports, according to him, has been pushing up the cost of doing business for shippers and manufacturers, whose goods and raw materials spend days and weeks before getting to their warehouses.
“The longer these consignments spend without clearing compel shippers to pay more to shipping companies as demurrage for occupying the containers and storage charges to terminal operators for occupying space in the terminal,” he added.
Speaking on the health implications of commuting on traffic, Richard Adebayo, a consultant psychiatric and clinical psychologist, at Federal neuropsychiatric hospital, Yaba said that travelling on long tragic jam can translate into health hazards with both physical and mental consequences.
“Spending long hours in traffic can be stressful and can cause orthopaedic problems, like back pains, leg pain and affects circulation of blood, which can lead to deep vein thrombosis. It also affects sleeping pattern, tiredness, and for those who have the tendency of developing high blood pressure, it can also worsen and lowers effective ability of daily activities,” Adebayo said.
He added that the mental consequences of stress can lead to anger and frustration.
Oladoyin Odubanjo, chair, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (APHPN), Lagos Chapter, said that traffic congestion exposes people to air pollution from fumes emitted by vehicles.

 

AMAKA ANAGOR& ANTHONIA OBOKOH