The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has acquired and deployed two 60-tons buller- pull tug boats with state-of-the-art, fully computerized engines, to meet the increasing demands of critical stakeholders, within the Lagos Pilotage District.
With the arrival and deployment, the NPA has subsequently increased its fleet in Lagos to 15, consisting of eight tug boats, three pilot cutters and four mooring boats; in an aim of bringing to an end, stakeholders' complaints of tugs insufficiency, within the Lagos ports.
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has acquired and deployed two 60-tons buller- pull tug boats with state-of-the-art, fully computerized engines, to meet the increasing demands of critical stakeholders, within the Lagos Pilotage District.
With the arrival and deployment, the NPA has subsequently increased its fleet in Lagos to 15, consisting of eight tug boats, three pilot cutters and four mooring boats; in an aim of bringing to an end, stakeholders' complaints of tugs insufficiency, within the Lagos ports.
Confirming this, the Lagos Channel Management (LCM), Managing Director, Mr. Danny Fuchs, said the tug boats, MT Uromi and MT Majaiya were presently the strongest in their class in the country as each of them came with twin fire fighting pumps, with a reach of above 300 meters and a flow of over 600 cubic meters per hour of water and foam.
Investigation showed that, until their acquisition, the biggest tug boats in Lagos had capacity not beyond 45- ton buller-pulls, while the biggest in Port Harcourt pilotage district, might not be up to 50-ton buller pulls. And unlike the MT Ohafia and others before it, the new tug boats actually have slimmer bodies and narrow bridges (wheel house), with inclined exhausts, meaning that they could get closer to the large ships without hurting either the ship or themselves; thereby making them highly effective in doing their jobs. At full throttle, they can do a speed of at least 14 knots, either forward or backwards.
"The Uromi and the Majaiya are 2010 model and they are very powerful tug boats; 60-tons-buller-pulls boats each.
They are currently the biggest in Lagos", indicated Fuchs.
"They have been commissioned and they have begun to work. They provide Lagos with the most modern and best technology in the world today. The engine, a MTU, like I told you, is one of the strongest in the world. They are German engines. They are already working 24/7.
"The two new-built are usually devoted to the extra big ships sailing in, while the other tugs are devoted to the smaller vessels sailing in or out. it is part of the super-efficiency gains that Lagos is enjoying.
"With the two new-built, Lagos now has eight tug boats, three pilot cutters, for the movement of the pilots to meet the arriving ships, at the Fairway Buoy; and then four Mooring boats for the movement of NPA officials from Marina to Harbour Masters, and for other logistics. That brings everything to a total of 15", he explained, expressing his joy that the towage management company, the Landfall has preoccupied itself with capacity development.
"Today, the Landfall alone has employed more than 200 local staff. And we are training and re-training them. We have a ratio of 1:10. About 10 percent of staff are expatriates. And even most of the expatriate are simply coming and going. They don’t stay here all the time.
"The Landfall is working in the light of international standards. And that explains why we need to bring in only certified captains; which we mostly cannot find here.
"Most Nigerian staff are good. But it is not all of them that have good papers. So, we bring in those without good papers; merge them with those expatriate with good papers; and then we begin to train and retrain those without good papers. They soon become, all very good in due course. You can understand why our staff are therefore, in so much high demand
"It is not a one- night affairs- we send them for mandatory trainings. Our pool is highly and enviably stocked!
"We treat our staff with much respect. The 200 Landfall staff are working according to the condition of service, as internationally required- in respect of the boats; and as agreed between the unions and the management. We respect each party's view", he said, highlighting that his organization's humanitarian project of training Nigerians as seafarers had begun to yield encouraging results.
"Five years ago we started with 40 cadets, 20 engines and 20 decks. And because there was no good institution that can prepare the cadets in Nigeria for the STCW exams, we spoke with many marine consultants who advised that the best place was Ghana Regional Maritime University. So, we sent all our cadets there. They learnt the theories there. And come here for practice. So, it has been a theory-practical, theory-practical and so, they were going back and forth.
"But today we have produced seven engineers who would soon up-grade, for higher class. We have also produced five decks. Out of the five decks, three are already master mariners.
"They are today, certified tug masters and master mariners. It also means, they can go with their certificate to work anywhere in the world. Again we are proud of them. And sincerely speaking, I am proud of them", he stated further, praising Federal Government's determination to transform Lagos into a hub, by ensuring an enviable depth in Lagos.
"As for the depth of the channel we promised that we are not going to have anything less than 13,5 meters depths, even at the lowest tide; and I can assure you that more than 80 percent of the channel meet this requirement!
So today, we have in most part of the channel 13.5 meters and above.
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