While finance experts and professionals are busy at the Nigerian capital and money markets exchanging the Naira for Dollars, Pounds, Yen, Yuan, etc, members of the Apapa gridlock taskforce, mainly security agencies, are also busy at the numerous checkpoints on roads and bridges leading to Apapa, trading with truck owners on Naira and ‘pass’ to the ports.
Observers say there is a marked difference in the outcome of activities in these two trading platforms. Whereas trading in foreign currency is legal, promotes trade and grows businesses and the economy, the Apapa bridge trading is illegal, insensitive, punitive and anti-business cum economic growth.
They note that when the federal and Lagos State governments along with other relevant stakeholders set up a task force to control traffic and end the gridlock and congestion in and around Apapa, little did they know that the task force would turn out to be an empire with unfettered powers to add to the woes of those whose interest it was set up to serve by collecting ‘royalties’ from them.
It has been observed that, since July 2018 when Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made a lame-duck visit to the port city and caused the task force to be set up, the gridlock which has killed many businesses and forced many landlords out of their houses, has not improved, except for the few days a manual call up system initiated by the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) lasted. That system has been sabotaged to allow the bridge trading to continue to flourish even as businesses bleed.
“Everyday, especially in the evening, between 6pm and 10pm, there is a large gathering of ‘traders’ at the various checkpoints, comprising the managers of the checkpoints (the taskforce members), truck owners or their representatives, drivers, importers and clearing agents whose goods are at ports. How fast your truck moves depends on how much you are ready to pay”, a truck driver explained to BusinessDay, pleading anonymity.
“What you see now as gridlock is caused by these security agencies who are more concerned with how much they make from each truck that passes the checkpoints than controlling the movement of trucks into Apapa which is why they are here. And this is affecting our business”, the driver added.
In a veiled reference to the activities of the security agencies at the multiple checkpoints, Remi Ogngbemi, chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners ( AMATO), affirmed that the gridlock and congestion in Apapa and environs are as a result of the collapse of the truck call up system arising from human intervention and manipulation. “The system is being sabotaged,” he stressed on Monday.
Whereas many businesses, especially those involving agro-products for export such as cashew nuts, cocoa seeds, etc, are bleeding and dying as a result of the ports congestion, the checkpoints have grown to a N150 million a week economy.
A port operator who pleaded anonymity estimates that the security operatives at the checkpoints make as much as N150 million from truck owners, given that about 3,000 trucks which visit the port weekly pay as much as N50,000 each to fast track access into the port.
According to the operator, about 10 checkpoints from Western Avenue to Apapa Port and more than 15 checkpoints from Mile 2 to Tin-Can Island Port manned by security operatives have been identified.
Gridlock and congestion at the points are the reasons for the high haulage costs from the Ports. Emeka Anene, a port user, lamented Monday that it was now more expensive to get goods out of Apapa ports than bringing them into the country from China and European countries.
‘From N80,000 to N95,000 we used to get a container out of either Tin Can or Apapa ports to Alaba International Market or ASPAMDA, it now costs between N400,000 and N600,000 because of congestion, multiple checkpoints and bad roads within Lagos metropolis,”Anene noted.
In the last 24 months, haulage cost in and around Apapa has sky-rocked. Today, transporting a 40-footer container from Lagos to Onitsha costs an importer N1.3 million, up from between N320,000 and N340,000 before the congestion in Apapa.
Moving the same container from Lagos to Shagamu which before cost N120,000 to N150,000, is now N750,000 to N800,000. For an importer to move his goods from Lagos to Ilorin now costs him between N860,000 and N900,000, up from N220,000 to N260,000 he used to pay, just as transportation of same size container to Abuja now costs N1.3 million to N1.4 million, up from N420,000.
CHUKA UROKO
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