Shippers’ Council urges FG to expedite action on construction of Tincan – Apapa/Oshodi Expressway 

The Executive Secretary of the Council, Barr. Hassan Bello who made the call on during a routine visit to CMA/CGM and MSC shipping lines, said the route is the artery of cargo evacuation from the ports.

According to the NSC boss, the pace at which the construction work is going is slow, saying the contractors need to expedite actions on the roads so as not to hamper the plan to achieve seamless operations in the port in first quarter of 2021.

He added that the Oshodi/Apapa road is the artery of cargo evacuation from the port

“At Shippers’ Council, we call on the Federal Government to pay more attention to the construction of that road. The road is the main artery for cargo, every other road is secondary.

On why he visited the shipping companies, Bello said December period is always a peak period in Nigeria, hence the need to visit the shipping service providers to find out their challenges as well as charging the operators on the need to embrace digitalisation of their operations for easy clearance of cargo

The Council said in its evaluation of shipping lines, it rated CMA/CGM at 63 percent while MSC is rated 44 percent in terms of use of electronic operations

“This is December and it’s peak period in Nigeria, the ports are extended and delivery is always challenged,so we are moving round to see that Nigerians are not so bothered about delivery of cargo during this time

“We are going to the shipping companies and the terminals to see that the processes are as quick as they could be. We know that there are challenges and CMA/CMG for example,we have examined and seen that they are 63 percent compliant in terms of digital.

“But we want that to be 85 to 90 in first quarter of 2021. We know that there are problems, there is high cost of doing business but there is no formal increase of charges by providers of shipping services neither the terminals too.

“The charges we are having is as a result of the disruption and distortion by the failure of infrastructure but government is doing very serious things about this.

“By first quarter of 2021, everything should be in place. We are introducing four cardinal things. We want 24 hours port operations

“We are working with Customs, NPA, NIMASA, NIWA that 24 hours port operations will commence and this will mean that any time, the port will work just like the airport

“The government right now is constructing rail up to Apapa so that we give the truckers in the road a run for their money,” he stated.