Harboursandport.com: Lagos --- The
Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency
(NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has said that efficient intermodal transport reducin
g the
turnaround time of vessels.
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| Director General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside |
Dakuku
who disclosed this in Lagos, said for any country to achieve efficiency at its
ports, intermodal transport system is an essential factor to consider.
Accordingly,
Dr. Peterside stated that “taking maritime for instance, if the lands transport
system is efficient; vessels idle time in the port will be highly minimized or
completely eliminated, thereby reducing the turnaround time of vessels. When
the turnaround time is low, the berth occupancy ratio of the port will be high
and the port will be more efficient, more competitive and more profitable”
He noted
that in order to attract investment to the maritime sector, a seamless
transport system is very crucial as there must be a good connection between the
road and rail to the ports.
A statement signed by Head
of Corporate Communications of NIMASA, Isichei Osamgbi, noted that the Agency
boss observed that port congestion is mainly caused by the inability to
evacuate imported goods out of the ports, which can be attributed to the
inefficiency of land transport connections to the ports.
When the connection is
inefficient, the cargo dwell time will increase, thereby causing congestion.
The resultant effect of this is that there will be no spaces left to discharge
cargoes and offloading from vessels will be stopped, pending evacuation of the
already discharged ones. Whenever this happens, vessels will be delayed, the
revenue of the port will drop, shippers will incur unnecessary demurrages and
the port will become unattractive” Dr. Peterside said.
The DG
who highlighted the impact of intermodal transport to the maritime sector as;
improvement on the cargo handling time in the ports, improvement of security in
the ports, reduction of damages and losses, ease of transfer to other modes of
transport and faster transportation to the final destination amongst others. He
noted that it is a greater enabler for multimodal transport system, which is a
means of door to door delivery of goods using different modes of transport.
Furthermore,
he used the opportunity to assure the international community that the
President Muhammadu Buhari’s led Federal Government is leaving no stone
unturned to ensure that the access roads leading to Nigerian ports are very
accessible so that vessels accessing our ports do not exceed their dwell time.
While
canvassing for more investment in the Nigerian maritime sector with an
assurance of return on investment, he said the Ease of Doing Business
initiative of the Federal Government, which has seen Nigeria, moved up from 169th position
in 2017 to 145th in 2018 is a step in the right direction
intended to bring about more investment opportunities. He noted that it is
hopeful that Nigeria will rank higher in the next rating. “We are also
engaging the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to create a specialized interest
rate for acquisition of assets for our shipowners, aside working towards the
disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) as this will also
give room for a full-fledged Cabotage regime and more job opportunities created”, Dr.
Peterside said.
It may
be recalled that the Dr. Dakuku Peterside led Management of NIMASA has
continued to attract foreign direct investment through continuous partnerships
and collaborative initiatives, all geared towards the realization of a robust
maritime sector.
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