NPA Bans Empty Containers From Ports

• NPA Bans Empty Containers From Ports

Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Managing Director (MD) Hadiza Bala Usman has warned truck drivers and owners against bringing empty containers to the ports.

Henceforth, such containers must be taken to the shipping firms’ holding bays.

Ms Usman is said to have directed operators to stop using their terminals for storing empty container and no truck driver or owner must be allowed by any official of the NPA and terminal operators to bring empty containers into the ports after delivering goods to importers.

Ms Usman took the step to manage traffic in and around the ports.

Over 40 per cent of the space at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) and the Tin-Can Island Port is occupied by empty containers.

Ms Usman also ordered terminal operators to declare the number of empty containers in their terminals.

Most of the firms at the ports have no holding bays, despite the huge money they have generated since the ports were concessioned in 2006.

The NPA, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigerian Shippers Council and the Nigeria Customs Service, it was alleged, do not have a record of the empty containers in most terminals.

Speaking with The Nation in Lagos, a senior official of the Federal Ministry of Transport (FMoT), who pleaded not to be named, urged the government to support NPA in stopping operators from using terminals for storing.

“The Federal Government must support Ms Usman in her efforts to bring sanity to our ports. The shipping companies who are the owners of the empty containers must acquire holding bays that will receive them. The empty containers are to be evacuated to port terminals for export based on call-up system to be managed by the shipping firms and terminal operators,’’ the official said.

Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi and the NPA, the official said, should direct operators to publish weekly the number of cargoes with empty containers, at the ports. Most of the operators, the official alleged, connived with some NPA officials and shipping firms to keep containers at their terminals to create the impression that the ports are busy.

Lagos State Shippers’Association Chairman Mr. Jonathan Nicol said shipping firms were required to have bays. He added that most of the containers were in bad shape and could no longer be returned to Europe.

Nicol said the containers were bought at cheaper prices to ship goods to Nigeria where they were dumped. “Nigeria is not a dumping ground for containers. Now that there is no space in the ports for these containers, the shipping firms need to get holding bays and if they don’t have, they should hire,” he said.

He also said the country was losing N1 trillion yearly through cargo diversion to neighbouring countries due to the gridlock on the ports’ access roads.

Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) immediate past president Prince Olayiwola Shittu advised shipping firms to get holding bays or rent them, adding: “There are so many companies with holding bays that are looking for people to rent them.”

Shittu said the step being taken by the NPA would save importers demurrage on containers trapped in Apapa gridlock for days and reduce cost of goods in the market.

Some truck drivers said the challenge was that there was no truck park in Apapa, resulting in a situation where trucks were parked by the roadside and on bridges waiting to be called up to bring their empty containers into the terminals.

An importer, Chief Onasanya Ladejobi, expressed concern over the Apapa gridlock, which hinders access to the ports.

Ladejobi said the bad roads were hampering trade and affecting delivery of cargoes. He said the empty containers must be moved to their ports of origin and ports infrastructure be revamped to revive the economy.

The business community, according to him, is unhappy that measures adopted have not yielded results to free the roads leading to LPC and the Tin-Can Island Port.

The business community and port users, he said, were waiting for what he called “positive action” from Amaechi soon, adding that the quick rehabilitation of the road must be one of the minister’s major priorities in salvaging the economy.

The Federal Government, states and stakeholders, he said, should work together to find a lasting solution to the problem.

Ladejobi called for the promotion of agro-allied products export to free the ports and boost the economy, noting that he was not happy that about 90 per cent of containers traffic left the ports empty.

The importer urged the public and private sectors to support government’s efforts at diversifying the economy.

X-raying the ports’ last quarter operations, he said there was the need to complement the NPA’s efforts at massive investments in infrastructural renewal and automation of port operations by generating enough export cargo to move empty containers out of the ports.

The NPA, he said, must collaborate with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and Abuja Commodities & Exchange Commission in the promotion of solid minerals and agro-allied products to boost the economy. The Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development and Nigerian Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACIMA), he said, must also work with the NPA in tandem with the Federal Government policy on export promotion.