Operations inside Nigerian port terminals are well organised and professionally coordinated by port operators also known as concessionaires, the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), has said.
Bolaji Akinola, STOAN spokesman, who stated this on Monday, said the major challenges facing port operations in the country are dilapidated port access roads, poor traffic management and manual examination of cargo by Customs.
He said terminal operators, like other business entities in Apapa, are victims of the ‘dysfunctional state and chaos’ on the port access roads.
“Concessionaires have done very well to ensure efficiency in their various terminals. They do not have any role to play on the road. We neither own nor control the roads; and we don’t control happenings on the road. We cannot control the security agencies saddled with the responsibility of managing traffic on the road,” said Akinola.
He said terminal operators, more than any other entity in the logistics chain; bear the brunt of the Apapa traffic congestion because it hampers smooth evacuation of cargo from the port.
“The business of terminal operators is to keep trade moving. We don’t make money from cargo sitting at the terminal. Our profitability is in the volume of cargo we handle, so it is in our best interest for cargo to leave the port as soon as possible. Unfortunately, those who profit from the chaos on the road make it difficult for trucks to move freely to evacuate cargo from the port,” he said.
Akinola said the fact that the roads were cleared and rid of the notorious traffic anytime President Muhammadu Buhari visited Lagos ‘shows that security operatives know what to do to deliver us all from the pains we suffer daily from the gridlock’.
“In 2019 when the President visited Lagos, Apapa gridlock disappeared. It also disappeared on June 10, 2021 when the rail line and the Deep Blue project, were commissioned. It was not terminal operators that cleared the road; it was the same security operatives. How did they make it happen? Can they continue to do that on a daily basis?” he suggested.
While noting that the problem with Apapa is caused by bad roads, numerous check points mounted by security agencies and rickety trucks, he said that if these issues are addressed, and adequate parking lots provided for trucks, the gridlock will become history.
The trucks that have business to do at the port are less than half the number of trucks on the road. The others consist of tankers heading to petroleum jetties/tank farms and trucks owned by manufacturing firms in Apapa.
Recall that a few days ago, Mohammed Bello-Koko, the acting managing director of Nigerians Ports Authority (NPA), said NPA counted about 30 checkpoints mounted by security and traffic management officials on the roads in Apapa.
Akinola however stated that those who mount these illegal checkpoints are profiting from the chaos they created, which has nothing to do with terminal operators.
He said private terminal operators have invested N538 billion in port development from 2006 when the ports were concessioned to December 2017, and this has made the port more efficient compared to pre concession era.
“The Federal Government’s revenue from the ports has more than tripled 15 years post-port concession. Port workers’ welfare has been enhanced significantly and they are now among the best paid workers in the country. We have since addressed the chaos inside the port but those who profit at the expense of Nigerians have moved the chaos to the roads,” he added.
