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<\/a><\/p>\nJohn Iwori<\/p>\n
30 December 2011<\/p>\n
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The Federal Government has said it would drive the reforms it has started in the nation’s seaports, airports and international borders to a logical conclusion.<\/p>\n
It reiterated its resolve to drive the strict implementation of the nation’s port industry and make it competitive and efficient in the months ahead.<\/p>\n
To this effect, government is poised to do everything in its power to decongest the ports and to facilitate cargo clearance and delivery.<\/p>\n
Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, stated this in Lagos while on an assessment tour of Africa’s largest container terminal, Apapa Quay.<\/p>\n
The Minister’s visit came on the heels of her maiden visit two months ago, which led to a significant reduction in the number of government agencies allowed by the FG to be part of the cargo clearance processes in the nation’s seaports, airports and international borders.<\/p>\n
The move, which has been hailed by industry players, was part of the measures to facilitate quick cargo clearance and delivery.<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala said President Goodluck Jonathan was determined to make the ports attractive for business in the West and Central African sub-regions by removing all impediments that lead to delays in the cargo clearance process.<\/p>\n
The Minister, who was accompanied on the tour of the ports by her counterpart in Transport, Senator Idris Umar, was at Lagos Port Complex in fulfilment of the federal government decision to boost revenue by assessing the progress made in evacuation of overtime<\/p>\n
containers to Ikorodu Lighter Terminal by the Ports Monitoring Committee (PMC), which was recently put together by the government.<\/p>\n
Areas visited by the minister and her delegation were Apapa Container Terminal (ACT), presently run by the management of APM Papa Terminals Limited, a subsidiary of the global logistics and port operations giant, AP Moeller-Maersk Group. ACT presently handles about 75 per cent of containers coming into Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The team also visited the scanning site operated by Cotecna Destination Inspection Limited (CDIL) in ACT. The visit was informed by the need to assess the scanning machines and how the scanning operations aid cargo clearance in the ports.<\/p>\n
Umar, in his comments, said President Jonathan had directed that the ports should be open 24 hours a day to meet the 48-hour cargo clearance target by the federal government.<\/p>\n
The ports, Umar said, must be made to work as part of the transformation agenda of the President. He said the federal government was set to create jobs for Nigerians through the maritime sector of the economy.<\/p>\n
National President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), President and member of the Presidential Monitoring Committee on Ports, Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, confirmed that the committee has started evacuating overtime containers to Ikorodu Terminal.<\/p>\n
Media Adviser to Ports Monitoring Committee (PMC), Mr. Chuks Inuegbu, also confirmed that in the last few days, many overtime containers had been moved to Ikorodu but he could not give the specific number.<\/p>\n
The PMC was charged by the federal government to start moving 4,400 overtime containers out of the Lagos ports to ease congestion.<\/p>\n
THISDAY recalled that the Chairman of PMC, Prof. Sylvester Monye, told the media recently in Lagos that the committee had identified an inland terminal at Ikorodu which had capacity for 5,000 containers. He also said the movement of the overtime containers had started and that the bulk of the containers had been on barges as well as trucks in the night.<\/p>\n
Monye also directed that the shipping lines should remove all their empty containers from the ports, adding that “anyone of them who did not do that would be liable.” He maintained that the foreign shipping companies should be able to take back at least 70 per cent of the empty containers.<\/p>\n
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