Less than two weeks after it withdrew its earlier suspension order on issuance of Ship Entry Notice (SEN) to container- laden ships coming into Lagos ports, the managing director, Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA), Mallam Abdusallam Mohammed has disclosed that some Roll on Roll off (RORO) vessels have indicated readiness to sail to Onne port.
The managing director told the minister of transport, Alhaji Ibrahim Bio in Onne port, Rivers state recently that the move to convince ships to temporarily discharge their cargoes at Onne was one of the strategies that were targeted at decongesting Lagos ports.
According to him, apart from Onne port, other ports within the organisation’s eastern operational flank would soon start playing hosts to ships that have already indicated interests in going to ‘eastern ports’.
Shipping Position Weekly recalls that recently NPA had issue a suspension order in respect of Ship Entry Notice. Prior to that time, it had also appealed to multinational shipping companies and shipping agents to divert their ships to ports outside Lagos to ease the pressure. But shortly after issuing the order on suspension of issuance of Ship Entry Notice, some stakeholders kicked against it and mounted pressure on the supervising ministry of transport to stop the order and allow ships determine where to sail to.
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