The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has reiterated the need for 24 hours operation in the port, saying such development will enhance efficiency at the port and also position Nigeria to compete favorably with other world-class ports across the globe.
Speaking with newsmen on Sunday on some of the steps taken during the lockdown period to keep activities going at the Port, the Executive Secretary of the Council, Barr Hassan Bello said the combination of all the stakeholders formed a synergy that made operation at the port to be smooth.
According to Bello, 24 hours operation was experimented during lockdown period and it worked out. He opined that if 24 hours operation could be achieved during lockdown, it means the port can work 24 hours.
He said “We created a Maritime Task Team. The team is comprised of all relevant stakeholders in the maritime sector, including the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigerian Navy, the Customs, the Police, the Port Consultative Forum, the Council of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (CRFFN) as well as the unions.
“We were able to build synergy. We meet almost every week at Shippers Council. So Shippers Council in a way became the rallying point. Whatever problem that arose during that time, we sit down and work out the solution together. With the synergy and everybody working together, we found out that Nigerian ports could run 24 hours.
“We have to maintain that, the airports operate 24 hours, why can’t we? If we have 24- hour service, with a digitalized port where there is little or no physical presence and multimodal transport, we would be able to reduce cargo dwell time to seven days”, Bello said.
Meanwhile, the Shippers’ Council Scribe has stated that multi-modal evacuation and delivery of cargo from the ports in Lagos is achievable.
Bello reiterated that the mode of operation adopted, through the cooperation of the relevant stakeholders, during the lockdown period has shown that it is achievable to move cargoes through rail, barge and trucks.
He said “during the period, we were able to demonstrate that we can have multi-modal evacuation and delivery of cargo from the port because at that time, we were able to make the rail work, during the lockdown period, there were one or two train services at the port, there were also the barges and the road. If these three modes of transportation are fully deployed, the ports will be more efficient.
“If one trip by a train can clear virtually everything at the port, the implication is that we may not have need for all these trucks, secondly, the cost will come down because the railways are going to give the truckers a run for their money,” he said.
According to Bello, the cargo dwell time at the port currently is 20 days, pointing that council’s target is to bring it down to seven days.
The Shippers Council’s boss also reiterated the need for consolidation of freight forwarding companies that operate at the port, stressing that it is better to have as few as 10 strong freight forwarding companies than having millions that can barely pay for an office space.
