The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr Magdelene Ajani, has led an inter-agency team on assessment tour of overtime cargoes littering the Ports.
The team is comprised of officials of Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Customs (NCS) and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC).
The Lagos and Tin can Island Port Complexes and the Terminals therein including Ikorodu Lighter Terminal have over the years been occupied with 3,200 Units of overtime cars and about 3,295 units of overtime containers respectively, while the eastern ports have a combined total of 956 overtime containers.
The awkward situation apart from constraining terminal spaces required for seamless cargo handling operations in the ports, has contributed to deterioration of port infrastructure which are designed as transit locations as opposed to holding dead weight tonnages for years which these age long overtime cargo constitute.
Following the inspection tour, an all-stakeholder Sensitization involving Shipping Lines, and Association of Freight Forwarders and clearing agents was convened.
It was unanimously agreed that all cargoes and container that have overstayed their required time at the Ports should be auctioned “in-situ” (In their current locations) and removed immediately from the Ports.
To assure transparency and inclusiveness, the modalities to govern the auction process will be finalized by all stakeholders, after a similar sensitization meeting with stakeholders in the eastern ports of Warri, Rivers, Onne and Calabar.
It will be recalled that Mohammed Bello Koko, the Managing Director NPA had at several fora sought the cooperation of the NCS to ensure speedy removal of overtime cargo from the Ports and terminal yards to free up space and preserve the durability of the capital intensive port infrastructure.
