Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — In a bid to rid the ports of congestion and pave way for efficient port operations, the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, has commenced evacuation of overtime cargoes from ports in the Lagos area.
Recall that the exercise to free the ports of overtime cargoes received a boost recently when the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdelene Ajani, led an inter-agency team, comprising of the NPA, Nigerian Customs and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, on assessment tour of overtime cargoes at the ports.
The Lagos and Tin Can Island Port complexes and the terminals therein, including Ikorodu Lighter Terminal, have over the years been occupied with 3,200 units of overtime cars and about 3,295 units of overtime containers respectively, while the eastern ports have a combined total of 956 overtime containers.
The situation, apart from constraining terminal spaces required for seamless cargo handling operations in the ports, has contributed to deterioration of port infrastructure, which are designed as transit locations as opposed to holding dead weight tonnages for years which these age-long overtime cargoes constituted.
Following the inspection tour and an all-stakeholder sensitisation meeting involving shipping lines, and association of freight forwarders and clearing agents was convened, where it was agreed that all cargoes and containers that have overstayed their required time at the ports should be auctioned in their current locations and removed immediately.
To assure transparency and inclusiveness, the modalities to govern the auction process will be finalised by all stakeholders, after a similar sensitisation meeting with stakeholders in the eastern ports of Warri, Rivers, Onne and Calabar.
It would be recalled that Mohammed Bello Koko, the Managing Director of the NPA, had at several fora sought the cooperation of the Nigerian Customs Service to ensure speedy removal of overtime cargoes from the ports and terminal yards to free up space and preserve the durability of the capital-intensive port infrastructure.
