The Chattered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) has charged the federal government to define the purpose of Apapa ports.
The institute also said that the ports have not been properly defined in terms of functionality.
The Acting Executive Director of CILT, Mr. Paul Ndibe who said this in an interview with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos also blamed the terminal operators at the nation's seaports as the major cause of the traffic gridlock at the ports’ assess roads.
Ndibe said that the terminal operators have the responsibility of making the ports functional and also increasing the activities at the ports.
"The government should define the purpose for our Apapa ports; the purpose for the port has not been defined in terms of the functionality of the ports"
"You will not blame the port for the level of the congestion we are seeing; rather we should blame the terminal operators who are responsible in making the port functional and increase the level of activities going on there"
Explaining further, he said that if the port is under one or two concessionaires, the issue of the gridlock would have reduced.
He argued that “the points should be made that if Apapa ports is under one or two concessionaires maybe this level of congestions would have been reduced".
Ndibe, however said that with the numerous terminal operators at the ports it will be difficult to manage the gridlock.
"Because for instance, Dangote terminal may have spaces, but the other terminal nearby may not have space and you are not allowed to transfer cargos to other terminals because they are under two different terminal operators"
He advised the government to look into the activities of the terminal operators with the view of addressing this challenge.
"So even if you have space in a particular terminal another terminal can not use it because they are under different terminal operators. So that is the area they have not been looked into and its one of the causes of congestion that we witness, he said.
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