Nigerian ports in a sorry state with over 6,000 abandoned containers in Lagos- Oyetola

The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, on Wednesday lamented the sorry state of the nation’s seaports with the presence of over 6,000 containers dating back to 2011 abandoned at the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.

The Minister who spoke during his maiden visit to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) as part of his week-long tour of agencies under his watch in Lagos said the abandonment of cargoes were not making economic sense.

He said there is the need to engage the Nigeria Customs Service on the best way to evacuate the cargoes in order to free up the space at the ports.

The minister also decried the current practice of physical examination of containers by Customs stating that there is need for deployment of more scanners at the ports.

Speaking, he said, “Talking about the abandoned cargoes, I went on a tour, it was in Apapa port that they took us to where we have overtime cargoes. And they said some have been there since 2011. So I now want to believe that it is likely to happen in other ports. Particularly, Tin-Can and Apapa ports they have about 6,000 abandoned cargoes.

“You can imagine how much space the cargoes are occupying and the type of revenue the country is loosing. So I am going to engage the management of the Nigeria Customs Service to see what we can do. There must be a time frame by which a cargo can stay otherwise declared abandoned. To have kept cargo since 2011, it is unrealistic and unacceptable,” he said.

According the Minister, long bureaucratic processes and corruption are some factors that have elongated cargo clearance time thereby frustrating shippers and leading to the jettisoning of containers at ports.

“Again, I think people have not seen much need for clearing of cargoes if it has accumulated demurrage for one reason or the other. It is because it’s uneconomical for him or her to clear.

“The person will abandon it there but as a port regulator, you may encourage early clearance of such cargo,” he said.

Oyetola stated that he was impressed with the accomplishments of NSC in recent years even as he promised to partner the agency in tackling the issues highlighted as requiring urgent actions.

In his welcome address, the Executive Secretary of NSC, Emmanuel Jime, highlighted issues requiring attention to include the amendment of NSC Act to institute effective port economic regulation.

Other areas the NSC boss mentioned are; “Actualization of one-percent freight stabilization fee on import and export to Shippers Council as enshrined in the NSC Subsidiary Legislation. Implementation of the International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN); and the establishment of a National Fleet”

Jime also expressed delight that the Minister has already shown immense commitment to transform the economic fortunes of the nation via the maritime sector.

“The ministry of marine and blue economy is very strategic. It was not created out of any whimp. This ministry was created because of its recognition by Mr president.

“This agency of yours that you supervise is the laboratory where policy making in the industry that drives the marine space is actually cultivated.

“I have seen your body language and immediately you assumed office, there is this passion that you have displayed to make certain that as you supervise this very strategic nerve centre of the nation’s economy, there would be no vacuum,” he said.

Jime noted that he was convinced that the minister had come with a determination to change the narrative of the industry.

Also speaking, the NSC Director, Strategic Planning and Research, Mr. Rotimi Anifowose highlighted some of the recent gains of the NSC to include promotion of digitalization and automation of all port processes.

“In order to reduce the incidences of human contact in cargo delivery and abolish manual documentation for efficient service delivery, the Council is promoting the digitalization and automation of all port processes in Nigeria. This resulted into the digitalization of all processes by providers of shipping and ports services,” he said