Shippers, port investors, logistics service providers and other shipping stakeholders have charged the Federal Government to face provision of intermodal system of transportation in the country with the seriousness it deserves and not toe the path of lip service, as previous governments did.
The stakeholders converged on the secretariat of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN), Apapa, Lagos for a one-day talk shop themed, "The Prospects and Challenges of Logistics Service as the Life Wire of the Maritime Industry," organised the maritime journalists, with a view to seeking ways of improving the nation's abysmal transport and shipping logistics infrastructure.
Describing shipping as the soul of every economy, the stakeholders urged the Federal Government to begin concrete development of the waterways, rehabilitate and develop new port road networks, as well as advance the course of rail infrastructure linking the nation's various ports.
They also called for standardization of the freight forwarding profession in Nigeria which they described as the heart of shipping logistics.
Former Director-General of the defunct Nigerian Maritime Authority (NMA), Mr Patrick Egesi ,who was chairman of the forum, decried the state of the Lagos ports access roads, noting that Apapa was not planned for the logistics it is currently handling.
Egesi lamented that despite many papers done and presented on the need to develop Nigeria’s shipping sector by him and many other experts, successive governments did nothing, leaving the sector capable of employing seven million people, or more under-developed.
He said, "Federal Government must plan the roads, rail, waterways for efficient logistics in the country. At the time goods are being cleared at the port in Lagos, the shippers should also, same day be in Kano finalising delivery, but where are the roads?
"Without infrastructure, freight forwarding will suffer, as we have it now. Freight forwarding is the heart of shipping. Maritime is where shipping is limited to the sea, but shipping also includes movement of goods to Kano, Maiduguri etc.", he added.
On his part, a frontline freight forwarder and former President of NAGAFF, Dr Eugene Nweke called for proper regulation and standaisation of the freight forwarding by empowering the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).
He said, "Logistics requires planning with consideration to cost. Everyone in the logistics chain is to add value. We are having problem in the industry because freight forwarding has not been recognised as a formal profession by law in the country. The CRFFN is not empowered for its role and training of freight forwarders.
"In fact, let me say that we are having the numerous problems we have in the profession because we are a people denied or shortchanged of our professional merits. For the past seven years, we have been shouting Apapa gridlock, but nothing is done by agencies of government even in same Apapa’’, he lamented.
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