As at the last count, more than 2000
vessels were still stranded on the high
seas of Nigeria’s territorial waters due
to their inability to berth at Lagos sea
ports. This is not the first time
importers and exporters are being made to go through a lot of pain to
clear their goods at the nation’s sea
ports. Annoyingly, it also appears this
won’t be the last. As a matter of fact,
congestion at the ports has become a
chronic problem. It has been identified as one of the factors responsible for
the diversion of Nigerian-bound
goods to the ports of Benin Republic
and Togo by Nigerian businessmen.
No one can blame the importers,
because even during non-crisis periods, it is still cheaper and faster to
clear goods at the ports of these
neighboring countries than at
Nigerian ports, which explains why
imported goods from Cotonou and
Togo are cheaper than similar goods in Nigeria. Successive administrations in Nigeria
have repeatedly given the impression
of attempting to address this issue. But
none have gone beyond lip service. It
is therefore understandable that most
observers saw a recent stakeholders’ forum to address the issue of port
congestion in Nigeria as another
attempt by government to buy time.
Many who received the news believed
that the game of deceiving Nigerians
was about to be repeated. Forum of various types have become a deceitful
way of doing things at government
ministries in this country. In the end,
the only purpose such forum serve is
to achieve publicity for government
officials by forming part of news items on television network news. We expect the federal government
through the ministries of transport
and finance to conduct an
independent investigation into the
problem of congestion at Nigerian
ports so as to objectively identify the true causes of the congestion. A
stakeholders’ forum which brings
together customs officials and clearing
agents cannot achieve anything. You
cannot expect clearing agents
registered by customs to openly criticize the customs. This is Nigeria;
Customs will simply withdraw such
agent’s license the next day. Operators at the ports have often
pointed accusing fingers at the
Nigerian Customs Service and the
Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). The
customs service still insists on manual
inspection of all containers arriving at the ports. How many can they check in
a day? A full, automated clearing
system should be put in place as
obtains in other parts of the world.
Nigerians also see as disheartening
the presence of multiple units of custom officials, all performing similar
tasks at the ports. On its part, the NPA
should purchase and install modern
cargo-handling facilities to replace
those epileptic, obsolete and non-
functional equipments at the ports. The NPA also needs to jettison its
policy of assigning certain vessels to
particular ports, as this arrangement
makes some terminals congested
while others are barely utilized. Ships
should be free to berth at any available terminal. Government should
also take measures to fully equip other
seaports outside of Lagos, such as
Warri, Koko, Calabar and Onne sea
ports which are grossly under-utilized. Summary Measures such as these will
help in addressing the long-standing
problem of congestion at the nation’s
seaports. Nigerian businessmen and
ultimately the Nigerian economy will
be the better for it.
http://savinggracereporters.com/authors-opinion/congestion-at-nigerian-sea-ports/

Hm

.Expect nothing positive from a country ruled by sub-humans for years.
Akwa ibom,cross river,rivers and bayelsa have direct access to the sea while Anambra,imo,Abia and Ebonyi have indirect access to the sea. I wonder what is making those half humans called leaders not to look inward and futher develop the economy of Nigeria through the aforementioned routes.
This is what i call post civil war blockade

A serious country can not try this strategize slope down approach in developing its country, you found many seaports working at a pace were things work and people are reasonable. Here it always greedy focus and foolishness kept us undeveloped. Imagine the news.

You'll nt hit fp

At the fullness of time, our President body language will clear the sea of excess ship.

zuchyblink:
.Expect nothing positive from a country ruled by sub-humans for years.
Akwa ibom,cross river,rivers and bayelsa have direct access to the sea while Anambra,imo,Abia and Ebonyi have indirect access to the sea. I wonder what is making those half humans called leaders not to look inward and futher develop the economy of Nigeria through the aforementioned routes.
This is what i call post civil war blockade

Your guys in the importation business have refused to use Onne and PH ports. They claim that the fear of militants operating in that axis, is the beginning of wisdom. They also stated that clearing charges in those ports are higher, than those in Lagos ports.

What stops them from lobbying govt for a change in the status quo? Why not form a pressure group to apply pressure on those in charge of those ports to apply more user-friendly clearing charges?