Its no news that the cost of transacting business around Port Corridors is extremely high due to traffic malaise-Cargo dwell time which has resulted into loss of several billions on the part of importers & exporters, truckers/Transporters, Freight Forwarders/Licensed Customs Agents, the government inclusive.
Movement of trucks in and out of ports have been at chronic state quite some time now at Nigeria Ports, leaving main actors of the business with no other options than to face it’s consequences. The most recent is that of proliferation of more check points and the halting of truck movement in and out of Port Environment, as experienced late last year 2023.
The traffic melancholy experienced by major actors of the Sector has prompted relevant Stakeholders in the industry to gather in a Town hall meeting jointly organized by National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) in Lagos to brainstorm on how to achieve seamless traffic which will make supply chain management plan flow.
Speaking at the meeting, Chairman, Special Fact Finding Committee, NAGAFF Hqtrs, Dr. Arthur Igwilo lamented that Cargo dwell time in Nigeria Ports, Primitive cargo clearance procedures, high cost of doing business among others have been the Hallmark of port Operations in the industry.
Igwilo, who was also the convener of the meeting added that movement of trucks in and out of Ports have taken another dimension as importers continue to spend longer periods to clear their goods out of Ports as a result of avoidable errors as well as administrative hurdles.
“Traffic has been identified as one of the extraneous contributory factors of the increase in the cost of doing business. Extortion by both traffic managers and non state actors, poor road infrastructure are also major contributing factor to the menace we faced,” he stressed.
Also speaking at the meeting themed, “Towards Promoting and Enhancing Traffic Sanity, Orderliness Along Port Access Corridors in Lagos Nigeria,” was the representative of Trucks Transit Park (TTP), Operations Performance Manager, Adekunle Ojo, who debunked an accusation put forward by one of the participants on extortion of freight forwarders that they are compelled to pay as much as N10,800 to book ETO Call -up despite TTP campaigning publicly that ETO Call-UP system is free.
Ojo, who revealed that TTP is about launching Electronic Interchange Transaction Network, EITN, which will provide tag for trucks to access the Ports, explained that ETO Call -Up booking is free and any official found charging freight forwarders unnecessarily are not part of TTP management but touts
According to him, “Unscrupulous elements asking for money as the service charge for booking are not part of our (TTP) system. We have heard cases where some people are requesting transporters for some service charge to help them book and this charges run into thousands of naira.
“Eto accessibility is free. You can download the app to gain access, upload details of your truck and container and you can start your booking. Of course, the statutory fee attached is known to everyone.
“If we follow due process just as followed in other countries, we would have good result,” he said.
Apapa Port Manager of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mr. Charles Okaga on his part maintained that issues should be addressed from the route and also appealed to truckers on full cooperation to ease movement of trucks around Port Corridors.
To him, “To have a better environment, there is need for more cooperation, there is need to manage the volume of trucks that are in the system.”
