The Minister of Transportation, Engr Mu’azu Sambo has charged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to ensure that cargo movement in and out of new Lekki Deepsea Port is prohibited until rail services are available.
The Minister said this in Lagos at the 34th anniversary of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) held over the weekend .
According to him, this was to prevent a replication of the Apapa and Tincan ports experience whereby cargo movement has continued to suffer hitches.
As an alternative, the minister adviced that NPA should encourage the use of barges in the interim.
The Minister said that the idea stands to generate a lot of jobs for people fabricating the barges locally while building capacity for Nigerians.
“Lekki Deepsea Port, I have told them (the NPA) that I don’t want them to move goods to that port or from that port by road. There is no reason we should have another Apapa at the Lekki-Epe axis. I will not accept it. I have told NPA that. To start with, we must do barging; let us do barge operations that will generate a lot of jobs for people who construct barges and so on and at the same time build capacity for our people.” He said.
He recalled that he recently visited the Customs Comptroller General, Col Hameed Ali (Rtd) where he appealed to the Service that the scanning room in Apapa Port be relocated as it obstructs the rail line connected to the port.
“The reason he gave me was that we (the Ministry) were supposed to have made payment to decontaminate the place and thereafter, they will come and remove the pavements. I came back to the Ministry and made inquiries. I was told that the Ministry had made the payment a long time ago. So, my intention is to go back with evidence to show the CG that we have made payment a long time ago and there is no reason that building should still be standing because I don’t understand why and how it should take an age to remove it.
On the ease of doing business in the port, the Minister said he was considering port community system as a strategy that will aid cargo evacuation.
“Talking about the clearing process and the ease of doing business in our ports, one of the things I’m also pursuing is the port community system. That is the surest way of taking cargo out of our ports within a matter of hours. If other African countries have a port community system working, why can’t we have it in Nigeria?”
On the relevance of the Customs in port business, he enjoined planners of events to ensure the agency is carried along at all times.
“I want to appeal to our maritime reporters, whenever you convene an event like this, make sure that the Customs are always represented by all means even if you have to drag them by a long rope.”
Sambo regretted the pains he had as a manager at the National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, that the inland waterways transportation mode was never developed. But as the current Minister in charge of the agency, he stated, he has mapped out two projects to bring a turnaround. These include creating a trans-shipment hub at the Lagos Marina and putting in place a channels management.
“That is the one that is supposed to serve as a hub from Marina. When ships come into the harbor, they do trans-shipment into barges or specialized vessels that can travel over a maximum of two to three meters draught all through the inter-coastal routes to Warri and Onitsha.”
“The other one is channels management, the company, the Chinese investors that are willing and have the capacity to manage the channel. I have told my people in the Ministry that if I don’t have these two projects off the ground, people are going to cry. I will make examples with some people if these two projects don’t take off by next year.”
“So, when we combine the alternatives, then we can now tell haulage people that you can no longer take petroleum products by road; you can no longer take construction materials by road; you can no longer take cement by road so that our roads will last longer.
