SIFAX Inland Container Terminal (ICT) Ijora Causeway, which was commissioned in October 2020, recently marked its first anniversary. The terminal, which started on 15,000sqm of land with plans to expand to 48,000sqm, has recorded unprecedented expansion and acquired extra land that will see the terminal sitting on 83,000sqm. In this interview with select journalists, Paul Van den Linden, head of the terminal, spoke on the achievements of the terminal in the last year particularly the ongoing expansion projects. AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE was there. Excerpts:
Your terminal marked one year a few weeks back. Can you take us through the journey so far?
When we started in October 2020, barging did not really kick off immediately because we had to dredge from the fairway buoy to the quayside of the terminal, which was almost 800 meters. It was in December that we brought the first barge to the terminal. We started with very small barges but today, we do seven to eight barges per day with the capacity of 50 to 60 containers each.
This terminal was set to ease the long queue importers and agents go through in Tin-Can and Apapa Ports leading to a lot of complaints from shipping lines, agents, exporters, and difficulties in returning empties to the port. With the setup of this terminal, it becomes easier for people to access due to free roads to evacuate cargoes.
We do 24 hours operations to avoid queues and pile up of cargoes at the terminal. Since the coming of this terminal, there have been overwhelming responses from shipping lines, and agents to do business with us. This is helping us to grow even faster than expected. Importers can move their goods out of the terminal during the day or at night.
We have acquired additional lands nearby. For us and consignees, the good situation is for the containers to go out faster to avoid additional charges and for the return of empties to be easier, so that at the end of the day, we keep the cost of products as low as possible for the consumers.
We are working with the Nigerian Ports Authority’s (NPA) call-up system and do not allow too many trucks to come into the terminal at the same time. With that, we avoid queues on the connecting road and the NPA is also monitoring our operations in this regard.
Barges come into the terminal from the waterside and sometimes we have three to four barges at the same time but we follow all the NPA safety and security protocols by using the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in getting barges to avoid accidents.
It is part of our plans to have an online payment system to reduce the rate at which agents come to the terminal physically to make payments. We also want to make it easier for agents to work from the comfort of their offices and homes. This will be finalised very soon.
There is ongoing construction at the terminal because we took possession of the terminal in March 2020. So, the construction and operation are going hand-in-hand. We changed the land to a container terminal, which deals with a lot of weight and machines moving around. A container on average is 25 to 30 tons, which shows the amount of pressure on the floor. Therefore, we need to invest a lot to have the right floor that would last for years.
What are the achievements recorded in the last year?
We promised a solution using the water, which we are doing and the terminal is reachable by water. Our expectations are met and we have done more than expected because of the good response from the shipping lines and agents. At the moment, we have 600 plus customers built up in a period of one year.
In terms of numbers, we have done about 15,000 units of import containers amounting to 22,000TEUs; about 6,000 empty containers leading to 10,000TEUs, and 1,000 containers of export leading to 1,500 TEUs.
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We have 110 staff out of which 25 were employed from the local communities and we have tried to have a very good relationship with the community. We create jobs for the youth and engage them.
For security, we have CCTV installed at the terminal and we are planning to extend that to the new terminal. This monitors the movement of containers 24/7 in and out of the terminal.
On expansion, we started with the first 15,000sqm in phase one, but there is another 28,000sqm in phase two making it 43,000sqm. There are two additional lands, which when added together will amount to 83,000sqm that we are developing over here. This will position our terminal as one of the serious players in the container business in Apapa. In the next one and half years, we should be able to conclude all the construction works on the terminal.
What are your operational challenges?
At the waterway, we had to do our own channel to get our barges into the terminal. We are working with NPA and other agencies like NIMASA and NIWA to see that we get to the required depth. One of the issues was that we found a lot of wrecks underwater, which are not really mapped out and leading sometimes to a dangerous situation. We are working hand-in-hand to remove as many as possible.
How long does it take for cargo to be cleared out from your terminal?
When the ship arrives at the mother port, we get Customs transfer approval, and once that is received; we can transfer the container to our terminal. After the paperwork, a Customs escort follows the container to our terminal. The examination is done here in our terminal and Customs also do the release from here.
Within one and half days, containers were supposed to be out but due to the 100 percent physical examination by Customs, it takes about three days to clear containers out.
We are not interested in having containers stored in our yard but looking at fast turnaround of containers to enable us to do more volumes. This is why we open 24/7. We charge the same and give three storage free days like other off-dock terminals.
We have also agreed with Customs not to wait for a complete bill of lading to deliver container. We do part delivery of containers as soon as the importer pays all the necessary fees and Customs release. Then, the importer can come back for the remaining containers. This helps to fast-track the delivery of containers.
Where are you on your plans to berth vessels at the terminal?
We are very active in achieving this goal. We are about to get approval from the NPA saying that this terminal has been put on the map as the first private inland container terminal in Nigeria. We are probably a few weeks away from getting the approval and once we have that, nothing will stop but of course, the construction needs to be ready to receive that kind of vessel especially the dredging from fairway buoy to enable the vessels to come in and go out.
We have done a lot of preparation and simulation programmes to see how vessels will come in and go out. All of that has been done in line with the NPA. On getting the approval, we can now go full to do dredging in order to get the channel to 9meters depth required for such vessels to come in.
What is the percentage ratio of safety performance in this terminal?
We had an incident about two or three months ago because of the wrecks on the water. We have now mapped out most of the obstacles underwater to know what to do.
How much has SIFAX invested in the development of the terminal?
We have invested billions of naira especially in the construction of the terminal floor to be able to withstand the pressure from the weight of the containers and the equipment.
Who bears the cost of container transfer from the mother port to your terminal?
The cost related to transferring containers to the off-dock depends on the shipping line and how they want to work it out. We charge only the handling fees. The most important thing is that the consignee knows the benefit of bringing their containers to our terminal especially as regards spending a lot of money on getting trucks into congested areas. The rate we offer to the agents is part of the success of the terminal because if they are not happy with the rates, they will not come back.
