Terminal operators lack adequate facilities, manpower, group alleges

Segun Oladipupo |

Shortage of staff and inadequate equipment by terminal operators in Apapa and Tincan ports have been adduced as the cause of the perennial gridlock on the port access roads.

A group of licensed customs agents under the aegis of National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDCLA) said that as a result, trucks are held up on the road because of inability to meet facilitate loading and delivery within reasonable time frame.

The National Deputy President of the Amiwero led Council, Prince Adeniyi Ajayi who spoke with our correspondent in his office on Wednesday called on the Federal government to monitor the activities of terminal operators and shipping lines saying they impede the efforts of the Presidential task force on Apapa gridlock.

Prince Ajayi, who is the Managing Director of Kay Tosh Resources Limited, pointed out that shipping companies have failed to provide the needed holding bays for empty containers.

He alleged that the terminal operators do not have enough staff to handle the operations of the terminals thereby creating bottlenecks along the access roads.

He alleged that APM Terminal has obsolete equipment in discharging cargoes from vessels at berth, thus creating unnecessary bottlenecks at the entrance gate of the Lagos Ports Complex (LPC).

The council’s top member called on the Presidential Task Team,led by Comrade Kayode Opeifa to engage the concessionaires to map out strategies on how to improve on the traffic situation in Apapa.

“They have not approached the real problem. Where the problem lies is on these terminal operators, if they are operating in their full capacities, receiving empties and loading will be seamlessly carried out but what I notice is that when you enter into a terminals, they will show you equipment but most of the equipment are obsolete

“They don’t have enough manpower, what they do is when they have their ships at berth, and because the ship pays dollars, they will now move their equipment and their few personnel to the ship side and the people who are for examination, delivery and export will be left out.

“By the time they do that one for three hours, come and see the whole thing would have gone up to Ojuelegba.

“All the terminal operators are not working optimally, they are just doing skeletal works,” he alleged.