.As AMJON queries Lagos seaports over utilisation
Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, has tasked President Muhammadu Buhari led administration to put in place measures to revive the eastern ports of the country.
According to Aniebonam, such move would help to open up the country’s economy for more fortunes.
He added that the revenue accrued to the federal government from the Lagos ports is lesser than the government should get from the facilities.
Aniebonam who doubles as the National chairman of New Nigerian Peoples Party gave the advice on the heels of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee to revamp in the eastern ports.
He maintained that the ports would address issues bothering on youth restiveness and create massive job opportunities if properly harnessed.
He noted that the eastern ports, namely: Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar and the Onitsha dry ports have suffered setbacks due to political coloration by some political elites.
The NAGAFF founder sressed that :”It is a political issue, the ports are not working because it has political connotation. What is difficult in it aside the issue of insecurity especially like the Warri port. There was a time of restiveness but it is not uncommon.
“The dredging of the Calabar port is also a problem because there was period when issue of fraud and all that rocked the project.
“It is not about the issue of reducing freight and all that, it is not enough. In the first place, you know we have Aba, Onitsha which are commercial zones and it is easy for people from the East to pick their cargoes from there than going this far.
“If they want it to work, it will work and the economy will also be open because what we are losing in Lagos zone right now is more than what we are getting.
“We are losing so much because shipping business is dollar denominated and when a ship is idling, it is incurring revenue.
“The man hour loss in Lagos roads is a disaster in terms of the economy. I am sure if the President gets to know about Alli these things, he will take it up because it will create job opportunities, bring governance to the people, ease of doing business will progress , facilitation of trade and creating capacities will be enhanced ,” he said.
Government of Delta State has also expressed worries over the under utilisation of the seaports even as it has pledged to ensure it viability .
Also journalists under the aegis of Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) an umbrella body of journalists reporting maritime in Nigeria has said that inactivity or low activity in the Eastern ports has to a large extent become a disincentive to gains the Country is supposed to reap from the port concession programme, which no doubt has brought some level of efficiency in the maritime industry.
According to a paper presented by the association president, Mr Paul Ogbuokiri during a public hearing held by the house of representative ad-hoc committee to determine the reason why Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Onne and Onitsha port complexes are not being put to maximal uses.
During his paper presentation at the hearing which took place on Thursday August 15th at the National Assembly complex, three arms zone, Abuja Federal Capital Territory, the association president said that despite the 2006 port concession programme that gave Nigerian ports to private operators, efforts by the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA)to engender enhanced port activities in the eastern zone of it, port operation have either remained underutilized or completely in doldrums.
Sequel to the near inactivity in the NPAs operations, otherwise known as Easter Ports, 14 years after the concession programme, the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports have been experiencing traffic congestion due to increasing cargo throughput occasioned by the 2006 port reform carried out by the Federal Government.
The reform among other things was aimed at making Nigerian seaports more efficient, effective and to attract more cargos but the association believe that the underutilization of the Eastern ports has to a large extent become a disadvantage to the gains the Country ought to reap from the port concession programme, which has resulted to growing the country’s cargo inflow to all time peak of 84.9 million metric tones in 2014 to the lowest cargo throughput of 35.9 million metric tones in 2018.
Inactivity and or underutilization of the five seaports and the Ontisha River Port that make up the Eastern Port is the reason why there is OVER UTILISATION of the Lagos seaports (Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.
