Determined to ensure ease of cargo movement from the nation’s seaports to the final destinations, the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria (CIoTA) said its perfecting plans to push for policy to enable seamless integration of the different modes of transportation.
This would be the focal point of its 2019 National Transport Summit scheduled to hold on December 3–5 at the Musa Yar’Adua Conference Centre in Abuja with the theme, “Unlocking the Potentials of Transportation for Sustainable Development.”
Bashir Jamoh, President of CIoTA, who disclosed this in Lagos at the weekend, said the event would create an avenue to address the silo nature of the modes of transportation in the country, which have not been beneficial to the trade supply chain.
“CIoTA will be addressing a key issue of how best to get the needed value in the supply chain, because trade is only complete when goods get to their final destination in efficient manner. The challenge has been the non-integrated use of the various transportation modes, making it difficult for movement of goods from the ports to various locations,” said Jamoh, who doubles as the executive director, Finance and Administration, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
According to him, the institute will be looking at solutions that would integrate the road, rail, air, and water transport systems. “We want to push for policy to uphold seamless integration of various transport modes to support trade.”
Jamoh further identified the use of railway and barges for the movement of containers as one good solution to the perennial gridlock in Apapa port city.
He however emphasised the need for the expansion of ports, based on the fact that Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports have lost spaces.
At the forthcoming event, it is expected that Doyin Salami, chairman, Presidential Economic Council would be the lead speakers. Dignitaries expected at the summit include President Muhammadu Buhari, special guest of honour; Chibuike Amaechi, Minister of Transportation; Hadi Sirika, Minister of Aviation; Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Works and Housing, and Gbemi Saraki, Minister of State for Transportation, who will be the guests of honour.
Other speakers include Dakuku Peterside, director-general of NIMASA; Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and Fidet Okhiria, managing director of Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) and among others.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
