14 March 2013, Lagos – The Chairman, Shippers Association of Nigeria, SAN, Mr Val Usifoh, has urged the Federal Government to upgrade infrastructure in Nigerian ports.
Usifoh said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Lagos, stating that infrastructure deficit was the greatest challenge affecting the maritime industry.
He maintained that as government had no financial wherewithal to rehabilitate the ports, Nigerians should find a pragmatic way of upgrading the shortfall in infrastructure.
“We don’t need to expand the ports, the ports that we have now, most of them are very old and they have reached their limit of expansion. If not for this ports reforms, I wonder what would have been.
“So the strategy is to develop new ports, to fast track the actualisation of inland container depot, to fast track the railway development rehabilitation expansion so that the ports which is a transit area should actually serve as transit area.
“The cargo as soon as it comes moves out of the ports so we wouldn’t have all these congestions,” he said.
