Ifeanyi Sunday is a truck driver on the ever-busy Apapa ports road in Lagos. On a normal day, it takes Sunday between three and four hours after loading his container for onward movement from the ports. Sadly, it now takes an average of two days to get goods out of the ports.
“And if you paid N75,000 to transport your goods before this problem started, now you will be forced to pay close to N375,000,” he lamented.
Checks by BusinessDay show that there is a growing delay in getting goods to and from the ports, especially after the two-day work-free holiday last week for the celebration of Sallah.
Jonathan Nicol, president, Shippers Association Nigeria, Lagos State branch, said the problem of delay experienced at the ports is caused by a large number of empty containers as shipping companies who are the terminal operators have not found a solution for the empty containers.
“So right now, the government is looking for holding bay for them to offload the empty containers which in most cases are filled up, they don’t belong to us but to the shipping and terminal operators,” he said.
Abubakar Yusuf, CEO, NAKA Associates Limited, said activities at the nation’s busiest port are getting worse daily. This, he said, has been further compounded by the strike embarked upon by maritime workers.
“The Sallah holidays caused traffic of ships coming to berth in Nigeria. Some were delayed on the high seas, some on Nigerian shores that could not berth,” he said.
Abubakar further noted that the bigger problem is corruption at the ports and inefficiency of its workers.
“The workers are not disciplined, they resume work late, they don’t go to work, and they are not always on their duty post. The regulator, which is the National Shippers Council, is not performing its role, like periodically checking on the ports due to corruption,” he said.
Apapa, a port city with N20bn a day economy, is today as good as ‘dead’, which has seen its property value on a free-fall in both residential and commercial value, while many businesses have been forced to close down throwing many of their workers back into the labour market.
Abubakar said the implications of continued delays include loss of revenue, and crippling of businesses on the part of some that collected loans.
“You would see some perishable food items getting spoilt before they are shipped, as they spend 10 days on the road before getting into the ports,” he added.
BUNMI BAILEY & OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE
