Why Importers continue to shun Eastern ports.

Abiola Seun

Insecurity, decayed port infrastructure, bad roads leading in and out of the eastern seaports of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) threaten cargo diversion from Lagos port to the eastern zone.

The eastern ports included the Calabar Port, Delta Port, Rivers Port, Port Harcourt, and Onne Port.

The Port Harcourt and Calabar ports were supposed to serve as transit point for cargoes destined for the Middle Belt and the far North-East as well as Aba and Onitsha.

But, aside shallow depth of the draft and insecurity on the waters, collapsed quay apron and dilapidated access roads outside the port have also been a major source of concern to importers who would want to divert cargoes to the eastern port because of the traffic gridlock at Lagos ports.

A visit to Onne port showed that the East-West road that serve as the main road for the evacuation of cargoes for the Onne Free Trade zone that also house the Onne port was in a total state of disrepair and abandonment.

The road which was supposed to serve evacuation of cargoes to the North, South- East and South South had collapsed with trucks taking over the failed portion.

The channels leading into the eastern ports need to be dredged. Also, apart from shallow channels, which make it impossible for bigger vessels to access the eastern port, decrepit port infrastructure is another major problem.

And, while the Calabar Port suffers from shallow draught, the Onne Port is contending with insecurity such as pirate attacks and sea-robbery among others.

In Port Harcourt port, collapsed quay aprons have been a source of concern to operators and has affected calling of bigger vessels to the seaport.

Also, while high siltation at the Calabar Port has impeded safe navigation, the Port Harcourt Port also suffer under constant pirate attacks, which made the port unattractive for foreign shipping lines.
And, because of the afore-mentioned challenges, no fewer than 754 vessels are said to have deserted the eastern ports between 2013 and 2016. Specifically, the number of vessels that berthed at the ports reduced from 2,268 vessels in 2013 to 1,514 in 2016.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the number of vessels that berthed at the Delta port fell from 609 in 2013 to 433 in 2016, while the Gross Registered Tonnage at the port also dropped from 8,687,160 in 2013 to 6,177,809 in 2016.

However, the operators are investing in anticipation for cargoes from Lagos port due to the traffic congestion the western port.
For instance, the West Africa Container Terminal (WACT), a terminal operator at the Onne port has in the last three years invested approximately $3.5million in various container handling equipment like; 5 reach stackers, 2 empty handlers and 14 terminal trucks.
The operator also recently invested $10 million in two mobile harbor cranes inbither to better serve their customers

Also, to complement the investment of terminal operators and to attract cargoes to the eastern ports, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) introduced a rebate for vessels that call at the eastern port.

The NPA had announced the approval of a 10 per cent discount on harbour dues in all concession terminals at the Eastern ports.

The NPA said the ports that would be affected by this initiative are: Calabar, Rivers and Delta Ports.

The NPA had explained, “The authority, however, wishes to clarify that this discount will only apply to harbour dues payable by the following types of vessels/cargoes

The NPA had explained, “The authority, however, wishes to clarify that this discount will only apply to harbour dues payable by the following types of vessels/cargoes: Container vessels with at least 250 20-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), general cargo vessels with at least 16,000 MT, combo vessels with at least 16,000 MT and RORO Vessels with at least 250 units of vehicles.

“These discounts shall not apply to: vessels coming INBALLAST, vessels calling at private jetties and vessels calling carrying liquid bulk. The application of these discounts will take immediately effect.”
However, the Managing Director of WACT, Aamir Mirza in a chat recently identified insecurity, collapsed port access road and improving the navigational channel as challenges faced by the Operators.
He said, “our growing volumes and preference by customers for using WACT is a testament to our commitment to better serve East Nigerian market. Our vision is to make WACT the best performing terminal in West Africa.

We believe this vision can be achieved much earlier if government can look into addressing some fundamental challenges like; security risk because of piracy, improving depth of navigational channels and improving road and related infrastructure that connects Onne port to rest of Nigeria,” he said.

When contacted, the General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications of NPA, Engr Adams Jatto said the federal government is addressing the challenges facing the eastern ports.

He said, “if you understand that we have a limit when it comes to issue of access roads to the port because these are part of Federal government responsibility and we can see that they are trying as much as possible to find a solution to issue of the bad roads because they have started from Lagos and we can see that from Tin Can port to Oworonshoki has been awarded to dangote and they are trying as much as possible to get it done and I think such a thing is equally extended to port harcourt.”

“As per security, we know the problem we have in the eastern ports as per the unrest their but NPA and NIMASA are partnering with Navy to curb it to the bearest minimum so if we equally have to look at it, we will see that international piracy agencies have given us kudos to the reduction in the level of piracy on the waterway. We are doing our best but its work in progress and not that we have folded our arms.

“As per port Harcourt, we have serious issues relating to the quay aprons because they have deteriorated and we have commenced procurement process to ensure that the port is properly rehabilitated so that bigger vessels can come in.

Speaking on the shallow draft of the calabar channel, Engr Jatto said, “the shallow draft at calabar, we want to revisit the entire procurement process as it concerns Calabar because the problem is that if we have to dredge calabar, we are talking of about N50billion to dredge it and we have to look at economic of scales so if we dredge to the required length, can we get vessels to come in their and for how long are we going to recoup the money so those are the area we are looking at to see what can be done but by and large we want to commission a consultant to look at it, give us a business case to see how viable they are if they are to be dredged but what we are doing in calabar now is to appeal to shippers’ with low bed to move to calabar port,” he said.