Indigenous terminal operator, Ports and Cargo Handling Services has said that cost of doing business at Nigerian ports has increased further due to the bad state of the Mile 2-Apapa expressway, leading to Tin Can port, as well as the Creek Road, Wharf road axis leading to Apapa port.
The company subsequently appealed to the Nigeria Shippers’ Council as the port economic regulator to rally other government agencies at the port to find lasting solution to the poor state of the port access.
This appeal was issued by the Managing Director of the Ports and Cargo Terminal, Mr. Muhammed Bulangu last week when the Complaint Unit of the Shippers’ Council led by its Deputy Director, Mr. Fadipe Moses paid a working visit to the terminal
Bulangu equally expressed the terminal’s support for the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and the Port Service Support Portal (PSSP) which were recently launched by the Federal Government, but anchored by the Shippers Council.
"One issue we would want Shippers Council to address in partnership with other sister agencies is the road, the ports are gateways to the economy and gateways should be something you would want to look at"
"The situation along Apapa road is pathetic. It makes the business expensive, accidents happen every day, properties and investments are damaged, man hours is lost daily", he lamented.
Bulangu wondered how stakeholders would have fared if there was no economic recession in the country and the situation at the port had been better by 30 per cent.
He said: "there is no way we would have coped. Now that the volume of cargoes at the port is down, it could have been the best time to fix the road"
"The roads were constructed since 1975 and there has not been any major rehabilitation on the road. For the past one and half years, everybody accessing the ports have been coming through one way traffic and this is not right”.
The Ports and Cargo Terminal boss however commended the Complaint Department of the Shippers’ Council for keeping the Council on the right track of regulation.
He charged the Council to improve on its customer relations. "I would urge you people to come up with more innovation in attending to some of the challenges"
"We support the initiative (SOP and PSSP) because it would appreciate the industry, it is geared towards service delivery, we would partner and continue to do what is right for customers" he assured.
Speaking earlier, Deputy Director of Complaint Unit of Nigerian Shippers Council, Mr. Fadipe Moses explained that the reason for the courtesy visit was part of the Council's regulatory function.
He said that the complaint unit have been going from one terminal to the other to visit operators and know how they are faring.
"We know there are series of complaints emanating from the ports. But we are not for the shippers alone, but also for the service providers. If there are service impediments, we don't want to wait till you come to us, we have now come to you"
"Secondly is to intimate you with the SOP and PSSP recently launched by the council. The PSSP is a software that keeps track of all complaints from stakeholders and it's warehoused in the council"
Fadipe urged the Port and Cargo management to key into these two portals even as he requested the terminal to nominate a representative whom the Council can interface with on the SOP and PSSP platform.
"We would appreciate if you can give us an officer whom we would profile on the platform so that he would be contacted whenever there is a problem" he said.
Discussion about this post