Vincent Toritseju
06 May 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — DESPITE the lack of container vessel calls at Calabar port, over 6,704 passengers transited through the port in 2017, against 7,442 in the preceding year, representing a ten percent drop.
Although no reason was given for the drop, the statistical data made available shows that a total of 978 passengers transited through the port in January while 1,242 was recorded in February being the highest of the year under review.
For the months of March, April, May, 670, 537 and 595 were recorded respectively.
While 508 was recorded for the month of June, July saw only 493 passengers transiting through the port just as 372, 273, 293, 490 and 253 were recorded for the months of August, September, October, November and December.
According to the data, 3,375 passengers embarked on vessels at the port while 3,329 disembarked in the period under review.
Apart from playing host to passengers in the Eastern flank, other port formations across the country received a total of 181, 404 unit of vehicles came into the country.
Ports in the Lagos area received more of these vehicular cargoes as the bulk of the category of cargo were brought in through the Tin-Can Island Port as a total of 181, 404 came in through the port.
This is followed by 507 units of vehicles that came through Nigeria’s premier port Apapa just as Port Harcourt port and Onne port received 141 and three respectively.
The Nigerian Port Authority, NPA in its 2017 cargo throughput figure, a total of 71,903, 266 metric tons was recorded for the year under review.
While 25.89million metric tons being the highest were recorded in OnneOil and Gas free zone as this is closely followed by Apapa port with 18.9million metric tons of cargo for 2017.
Tin-Can Island, Delta, Port Harcourt Port and Calabar ports recorded 15.5million metric tons, 6million metric tons, 3.4million metric tons and 2.1million metric tons respectively.
In the report, a total of 12,243 vessels called at various ports across the representing 5,910,406 Gross Registered Tonnage, GRT,
Apapa Port recorded 2,876 GRT with one vessel call while Delta had 9,787 vessels calling at the with a total of 1,771,834 GRT.
For Port Harcourt port, and Calabar ports, 484 and 55 vessel calls representing a 451,050 and 13,090 respectively.
Maritime analysts opined that the lull in trading activities for last year could be attributed to the economic recession experienced in 2016 and early 2017.