Border Closure: Apapa Gridlock Returns

• Border Closure: Apapa Gridlock Returns

The increase in the volume of imports at the Apapa port has led to traffic gridlock in the area.

According to drivers, traffic in the area surged immediately after the nation’s borders were closed in August and have been on the rise since then.

AP Moeller, operators of the largest cargo terminal in Lagos ports, in a statement titled “A Call to Action as Container Volumes Rise”, said, “We have recently experienced a substantial increase in volume of containers arriving through the seaports.

“This positive development can be attributed to various positive government policies such as improvement in the implementation of ease of doing business policy, the Agriculture Promotion Policy and closure of land borders to curtail smuggling activities, among others.

“However, if these containers are not cleared by customers soon enough, this volume increase could lead to high yard density which could impact berthing of vessels resulting in vessel queues.

“We are anticipating further improvement in throughput ahead of Christmas and year end.”

Tunde Keshinro, the General Manager of the vehicle import terminal, PTML, said vehicular imports rose by 25 percent as importers now use seaport instead of the land borders.

The Federal Government had said revenue generation rose from N4.5 billion per day to N8 billion following the border closure.

However, the surged in cargo volume continues to impede movement in the port area.