Following the inability of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to auction or remove abandoned and other overtime cargoes that are presently occupying spaces at the nation’s seaport terminals, the number of this category of cargo has continued to increase by the day, BusinessDay can confirm.
This has not only threatened efficient port operation but has also resulted in the congestion of port terminals as spaces that are supposed to be used for the stacking of laden containers are currently being occupied by overtime cargoes.
Speaking at the third Maritime Stakeholder’s Interactive Session held in Lagos recently, Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), said there was an increasing concern around the presence of overtime cargo that litter Nigerian Ports.
She called on the minister of transportation to intervene in calling the attention of Nigeria Customs to facilitate the auctioning of these overtime cargoes.
“We have huge overtime cargoes in our ports and the last time an auction was done was in 2015. We have written severally to Customs but they suggested we move the consignments out of the port terminals to Ikorodu Lighter Terminal,” she said.
According to her, Customs needs to understand that there is a provision for on-the-spot auctioning of these cargoes.
“This means that they can auction the cargoes within the ports. We need to facilitate that because our terminals are filled with overtime goods. There is no space and this has become a big challenge to us,” Usman said.
Aside from overtime cargoes, Usman further expressed worry over the inability of Customs to deploy scanning machines for timely inspection of cargoes at the ports.
“Right now, all the cargoes coming into the country are being examined physically by all the agencies of government and this automatically translates into congestion,” she said.
She however called on the minister to intervene with Customs to deploy scanners to the ports in order to facilitate inspection of cargoes and eliminate delays in line with the provisions of Ease of Doing Business.
In terms of port development, she said Nigeria needed to have a Port Master Plan to guide the development of deep seaports. She further stated that the Federal Ministry of Transportation had granted NPA the approval to integrate all Nigerian deep seaports into the 25-year master plan.
“The port master plan has not been completed yet but we are mindful of the ongoing procurement process for that and situating the deep seaport into the master plan. We want Ibom and Lekki Deep Seaports to be accommodated in the master plan,” she said.
She said Lekki Deep Seaport was coming up and at its completion; it would significantly move away the traffic challenges in Apapa. “We need to fast track the completion of the port.”
According to her, the absence of deep seaport has made it impossible for very large vessels with 17 meters depth to berth on Nigerian waters because Nigeria has river ports with a maximum of 13 meters depth.
“We need to ensure that the ongoing deep seaport projects are concluded within the timeline. Our current depth of water channel is not because of dredging but because we have river ports and we will continue to maintain our depth,” she stated.
Usman however said that there were several abandoned vessels all over Nigerian waters by owners, who had downtime while carrying out fishing or oil and gas business.
“We have written to the minister requesting that vessels operating on Nigerian waters must get Wreck Insurance Policy. Thereby, if ship owners abandon their vessels on Nigerian waters, the insurance company would be called upon to move the vessel,” she suggested.
She said the NPA is presently discussing with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to jointly approach the ministry of Transportation on that issue.
“A huge number of these vessels are being detained by Nigerian Navy, Police and the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC). We have approached the Chief of Naval Staff but we need to fast track the justice system in order to be able to discard those vessels because they are all abandoned. They have translated into wrecks that would block our waterways and affect navigation,” she said.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
