Nigerian seaports lack Intermodalism  – Bello

Abiola Seun   |   

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barr. Bello Hassan said there is need to develop intermodal transport system to move goods out of the seaports across the country.

Speaking yesterday at the ongoing 2nd National Transport Summit, organised by the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria (CIoTA), tagged “Building Sustainable Transport Infrastructure in Nigeria: Opportunities, Innovation and Technology,” he said the challenge of the transport system at the nation’s seaport is not multimodalism but intermodalism.

According to him, Nigeria needs interconnectivity and modern transport infrastructure to address most of the challenges facing the nation’s transport system especially the Nigerian seaports.

He added, “Transport infrastructure is as good as integration with other mode of transportation, as you can see, it needs professionals to direct that. We don’t build infrastructure just for building sake.
“This infrastructure must integrate. Multimodalism is not our problem while intermodalism is the problem. They have to come together,” he said.
He said whatever happened at the seaports must have relevance with what happen at the interland, adding that most of the nation’s ports lack is interland connectivity.

“Of course, we have port in Calabar, but once your goods are at the seaport in Calabar, how do you now move them to Maiduguri and other places. We need high sense of interconnectivity and modern infrastructure in our seaports to do so.
“What we are saying is that professionals already know, they have plans, maybe 20 years plans of what the transport framework will look like. We need different mode of transportation, which must be integrated. So,  we are talking about seamless transport system,” he added.
He said there is need to integrate electronic commerce and electronic carriage of goods and paper work.
According to him, no need to be at the seaport looking for bill of laden, which can easily be transmitted electronically.
“So transport must be infused with technology and who will do that? Certainly transport professionals. We need professionalism. This is what we are talking about,” he stated.