Managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman, on Thursday commissioned two new multimillion-dollar state-of-the-art Mobile Harbor Cranes (MHCs) acquired by APM Terminals to boost service delivery at the Apapa Port, Lagos.
The new cranes were acquired as part of APM Terminals’ additional investment of $80 million (N33.6 billion) for the year 2020-2021, bringing the total investment by the company in Apapa since 2006 to $438 million (about N184 billion), which is the highest by any private terminal operator in Nigeria.
While commending the management of APM Terminals for acquiring the new cranes, Bala-Usman said ports were concessioned by the Federal Government to private operators to improve service efficiency and free government resources for other developmental purposes.
According to her, cargo volumes at Nigerian ports have witnessed a steady rise due to favourable government policies.
Bala-Usman said NPA has and would continue to engage with private terminal operators at the port to rise up to the challenge of the increased cargo traffic.
“NPA’s engagement with terminal operators is yielding tangible results as evidenced by the commissioning of the two new Mobile Harbor Cranes, among others. As ports become more efficient, efforts must be made to enhance cargo delivery process and free the ports of longstanding cargoes,” she said.
The NPA boss, however, expressed worry over the growing volume of overtime container in the port, calling on cargo owners and their agents to utilise the period of the lockdown to take delivery of their consignments at the port.
She assured that the NPA was also engaging with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to remove overtime containers from the port in order to free vital space for incoming cargo.
“We are also working with terminal operators to increase the barging of containers to take pressure off the roads. We have noted a significant growth in barging capacity and operations with more containers moved daily by barges from the port,” she said.
Speaking earlier, David Skov, head of terminals, Africa and Middle East region of APM Terminals, said before now, the company had invested $358 million (N150.36 billion) in port infrastructure development, information technology upgrades and modern cargo handling equipment to improve both quayside and landside operations.
“The additional investment we are making is to handle the increased trade volumes into Nigeria. Trade in Nigeria is growing due to the many favourable efforts and policies of the Federal Government of Nigeria, including but not limited to the policy on ease of doing business; stabilisation of foreign exchange; closure of the land borders which has increased the use of our seaports; and diversification of the economy,” he said.
According to Skov, the additional investment would create capacity to handle the growth in the economy, support the Federal Government’s efforts on trade growth and improve service delivery across the logistic chain in Nigeria.
He said with the acquisition of these new cranes, the terminal now operates with a total of 10 Mobile Harbour Cranes; 23 Rubber-Tyred Gantry Cranes; six empty handlers; 48 specialised truck terminals, six reach stackers and 11 forklifts.
APM Terminals Apapa took over operation of the Apapa container terminal in 2006 under the Federal Government’s port reform programme. Before now, the company had invested heavily on infrastructure, container handling equipment, yard expansion, modernisation of the terminals’ IT hardware and software systems, and development of additional capacity.
The huge investment has resulted in significant improvements in productivity, reduction in vessel waiting time and doubling of container volumes at the port.
Located in the nation’s premiere seaport at the heart of Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos, APM Terminals is presently the biggest container terminal in West Africa and in Nigeria.
