Harboursandport.com: Lagos - The
Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA and a private investor are to complete an N1.8
trillion ($5 billion) investment for the automation of access to the nation’s
ports in Lagos.
The
project which is expected to commence after completion of talks between the
private firm and the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA is facilitated by the World Bank.
The project was initiated by the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC but the Council was directed to
hand it over to the management of the NPA for implementation.
The partnership was part of efforts to keep the
nation’s ports in tune with want is obtainable in the developed world.
The Executive Secretary of the NSC, Hassan Bello, said that at the completion of the project, there
would be automatic traffic management that will ensure that only vehicles,
trucks and persons with purpose at the port can get access to the port.
According
to him, “It is lack of planning so we have to come somewhere and start
planning; our proposal is to have access to the port limited electronically,
you know what we had is because of the study we commenced by the assistance of
the World Bank.
“The
Lagos logistics route, every day there are 4,700 trucks that are coming in but
what was needed is 1,800.
“So
what of the excess of those trucks, what were they doing? They are a nuisance,
they have nothing to do, and sometimes they come for the freight market and so
on.
“No,
ports are not free to access and then you have to station areas, you have a kind
of automatic traffic management instead of modern traffic management. So we
have someone; an investor who wants to invest his own money to do the automation of Apapa
traffic you know, electronic gates you can only pass if you have the access as it is done
everywhere."
On how much the project is worth, the Shippers Council boss said, “No, I will find out about it. Maybe, five billion dollars or so.
On how much the project is worth, the Shippers Council boss said, “No, I will find out about it. Maybe, five billion dollars or so.
“The
port of Akaba in Jordan was worse then what Apapa is now but it has been
cleaned up now, it is one of the most efficient ports. We cannot rely on manual
things, nobody does it anywhere.
“I
have said it many times that Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA should own Apapa and
you cannot put a kiosk without the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA knowing.
“But
here even bridges are built, large institutions are built without the NPA there
should be a master plan and I hope we have learnt our lessons when we do not
have Apapa part 2 when we start operating in Lekki port.
“There
must be port plans. This is what the capacity will be in two years so this is
when we have x tonnage, in two years it will increase especially in Lekki where
we have bigger ships coming because the drought can accommodate bigger ships.
“You
have to plan we cannot allow this to be like that and that is what we said. So
somehow Nigerian Shippers Council proposal did not fly in the sense that we may
not have also the infrastructure to do that because it has to do with ports and
we agree, we gave it to the NPA.
“Our
own is not to run anything; our own is to think on how we can make this thing
efficient.
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