Freight Forwarder warns of plans by shipping companies to sabotage NPA’s E call-up system

Abiola Seun |

A clearing agent operating at the nation’s seaports yesterday warned that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), electronic call-up system will experience hiccups except shipping firms are stopped from dumping expired containers on Nigeria.

Speaking to newsmen, the Chief Executive Officer, MacManuel Global Logistics Limited, Emeka Enwelu, said until shipping companies are made to halt turning the country to a dumping ground for expired containers, the traffic situation in Apapa and its environ would not improve.

He said, “NPA is trying, but that is not the real issue. The shipping companies have turned Nigeria to a dumping ground for disused containers and that is why they are not keen to take them back to their home countries.

“Ordinarily, the shipping companies, after bringing in goods to the country, ought to take back some percentage of the containers to their home countries, but they don’t do that because majority of the boxes have expired.

“So, it is better such containers are abandoned here in Nigeria. I think it is time the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, NSC began serious regulation of their operations here in Nigeria”, he said.

He added that the traffic crisis could be attributed to the acts of omission or commission of the shipping firms, pointing out that they were supposed to establish holding bays for empty containers which never happened.

He advised that the construction firm should have been sympathetic to the plight of road users by opening up even if partially, some of the portions that had been completed rather than shutting both lanes to traffic in the midst of stranded cargoes desiring evacuation