The managing director and chief executive officer of Nigerian Port Authority, Mohammed Bello Koko, during his speech at the 55th Session of the State House Briefing on Tuesday, 25 October, pinned the perennial gridlock on the Port’s way on outdated cargo processing and clearing system which he said was introduced in the 70s.
He noted that the Tin Can and Apapa ports were built with a manual processing system in the 70s, which as a result caused gridlock in the axis as Lagos state population increases.
Koko however affirmed that technology has been introduced into the system to minimize the issue of gridlock.
As reported by Vanguard, he said, “The current and existing ports of Tincan and Apapa’s problem are that these ports were built in the 70s and the city has caught up with those ports and that is why we have perennial traffic and gridlock. We used to have manual manifest of trucks into the ports. The two ports handle apparently 1500 truck movements daily into the ports. We entered into partnership with truck Transit Park and an electronic call-up system which we named ‘Eto’ (Yoruba name for orderliness), which has resulted in fundamental ease in the traffic situation in the Lagos ports.
“With the result of this, we are trying to deploy it to other port locations. We are seeing gradual gridlock and we will deploy to Lekki and other port locations. What we have done is to ask the private sector to set up truck parks. Through that, the system has created employment and also added value. We are also sure that by the time the road construction, especially the one leading to Tin Can, is done and things will get better.”
He also stated the reason behind the empty container policy.
“We have also introduced the empty container policy. We realised that the shipping lines have turned Nigeria into a dumping site for empty containers. We have instructed that all shipping lines should evacuate the 80 per cent of all containers imported at any given time,” he said.
