Nigeria economy may recover N140bn from Apapa gridlock loss

Abiola Seun

Following the recent directive by the Federal Government mandating the Nigerian Navy and other military officials to cease from traffic management duty in and around the Apapa port and the 72 hours ultimatum directing truck drivers to vacate the port access roads, Nigeria economy could now save a whopping N140billion weekly loss to the port traffic congestion.

Recall that the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, had in 2017 said that Nigeria economy loses N140billion weekly to the Apapa traffic gridlock.

“The economy loses more than N20 billion daily. It affects businesses across the country. All our operations in the hinterland in Ilorin, in Kano are operating at 40 per cent maximum capacity, Dangote had said.

Also, the Organised Private Sector (OPS) has lamented that due to the persistent traffic gridlock in the Apapa area, industrial capacity utilisation currently stood at 38 to 40 per cent, while 40 per cent of businesses located around the port communities had either relocated to other areas, scaled down operations or completely shut down.

About 5,000 trucks seek access to Lagos ports on a daily basis along an access road designed to take only about 1,500 trucks daily and also, about 60 tank farms are located around the ports, most of which were located without recourse to the original design of the ports, traffic consideration or the volatility of the products in the tanks, it added.

This result in trucks spending more than one week sometimes to access the ports from Lagos mainland due to traffic gridlock, the report added.

The developments have very huge adverse implications for job creation, tax revenue and real economic activities, with estimated downside effect of about three per cent on the country’s Gross Domestic Product, the OPS had said .

However, in other to beat the daily bleeding of the economy, President Muhammadu Buhari last month issued a presidential directive for all trucks on the port access roads to vacate in 72 hours.

The President also directed that all military and paramilitary checkpoints in front of the ports and environs should be dismantled thereby mandating the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to be the lead traffic management agency.

This directive that has been lauded by truck owners as a welcome development, will help save Nigeria the cost of bribing who through illegal allocation of space to truck drivers on the roads and bridges along the Apapa port rakes in millions monthly.

However, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has said that fixing the Tin Can Island trailer park alongside the Lilypond Truck Transit park will finally eliminate the traffic gridlock.

According to the managing director of NPA, Hadiza Bala-Usman in Lagos last week said, “fixing that trailer park along with what we have currently at Lilypond will go a long way in decongesting the traffic. The gridlock in Apapa has been lingering for to long, the NPA in the last three weeks withdraw the lease for the Lilypond Terminal and converted it into a Trailer Transit Park (TTP).
“We have also called on the Lagos State Government to provide land for TTP for overriding public interest; we need trailer parks and holding bays to enable us to manage the traffic. We cannot have a situation where all the trailers do not have designated parking. We must have as state or local government a place for trucks to park.”

She further urged the federal ministry of Power, Works and Housing to hand over the uncompleted Tin-Can Island Trailer park to the authority for completion.

The NPA MD noted that the ministry has been constructing the park around Tincan Island Port access for the past 10 years.

The traffic situation will not reduce in Apapa unless there is a concerted effort in providing trailer parks. I will also use this opportunity to call on the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to conclude the trailer park inside the Tincan Island Port, the ministry has been constructing the park around Tincan Island Port access for the past 10 years.

“I have held discussions with the ministry over two years ago when I assumed duty and requested that the trailer park be handed over to the NPA so that we can conclude the shore protection and have it ready.

The MD also called on the Lagos State government to withdraw some of the land allocations they have for trailer parks so that they can be developed into standardized parks for use of the state.

“I call on the Lagos and Ogun state government to use overriding public interest and withdraw some of the land allocations they have for trailer parks so that they can be developed into standardized parks for use of the state.

“The NPA intends to have call up system in the trailer parks. Lilypond is really a transit into the port; we need to have large sized parks that will house the trailers on the road.

“A lot of the trailers on the road have no business in the port, they are there waiting to be called for business. If the Lagos state of Ogun state governments provide space for the parks, those trailers who have no business at the port can stay there for people who needs their service to contact them, “she said.

The Lagos State vice-president, National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) Dry Cargo Sector, Mr Abdullahi Mohammad-Inunwa, had on several occasions lamented the high cost of money, truck owners pays just to get into the port to pick up goods.

Inunwa who had several times said trucks owners pay as much as N70,000 to N80,000 daily to traffic officials and other military officers along the port, commended the Federal government directive mandating Naval officials to stay away from traffic management duty

Also speaking, the Association of Nigerian Licence Customs Agents (ANLCA), commended the presidential directive on the removal of trucks from the port access road.

The Vice President, of ANLCA, Kayode Farinto said over the weekend that the directive is long overdue even as he commended the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for the creation of a Truck Transit Park (TTP) that would also aided the decongestion of the port access road.

In a telephone chat with our reporter the Vice President, Association of Nigerian Licence Customs Agents (ANLCA), Kayode Farinto commended the rapid response of NPA to the directive but however urged the government to allow the directive to be carried out holistically to allow petrol laden tankers and articulated vehicles to vacate the port road.

According to him, “Firstly, I will commend the Federal government for removing the Navy from traffic management.

“I also want to commend NPA for having the truck park and with this, I don’t know why truck drivers will insist on parking on the shoulders of the road.

“it’s a good development because I believe we are not in a lawless country so government should take charge.

“Also, the government should do the needful by repairing the roads and resurface them. The government should put them in good shape so that they can have the effrontery of arresting erring truck for parking indiscriminately.

“They should also make the trailer parks very cheap for the truck drivers to park their vehicles. it should be a holding bay for trucks and a temporary solution.

“it shouldn’t be turn into a parking lot where vehicles are abandoned. like I said, its a welcome development, truck drivers should learn to obey laws of the land because it’s embarrassing to see that truck have taken over the roads leading to the ports with them parking indiscriminately.

“And I also hope that tanker owners and drivers will comply because government is not telling us whether they are also involved in the directives.

“Because, the complaints have always been articulated trucks moving goods from the port, what about tankers? are they going to be affected or they are exempted? the directive should be holistic so that there would be sanity on the port road,” He said.