The Minister of National Planning, Dr Samsundeen Usman has berated the management of APM Terminal over, what he called poor working environment in the terminal; especially at the physical inspection site, saying the site is below the expected standard that for human being to work in.
The Minister who made this known during an inspection visit to private terminals in Lagos last week Friday expressed dissatisfaction with the present working environment of the concessionaire at the Lagos Port Complex.
The Minister of National Planning, Dr Samsundeen Usman has berated the management of APM Terminal over, what he called poor working environment in the terminal; especially at the physical inspection site, saying the site is below the expected standard that for human being to work in.
The Minister who made this known during an inspection visit to private terminals in Lagos last week Friday expressed dissatisfaction with the present working environment of the concessionaire at the Lagos Port Complex.
The minister consequently charged the terminal operator to urgently put in place facilities that will be convenient for agents, who have dealings at its terminal.
"We cannot have our Customs people and clearing agents working in a place like this, they need to do whatever is needed urgently to make this place habitable."
He said, "we have seen considerable improvement in this area, but the area where they do physical inspection clearly needs more to be desired and we have said to the operators that this are almost sub human."
However, the minister promised to take the issue up to the management of the Terminal since the poor working site is not in line with the terms and pact the operator had with the government.
Meanwhile, APM Terminal Limited has attributed the percentage of Customs request for examination of containers and the multiple checkpoints mounted by officers of the Nigeria Customs Service for containers leaving the terminals after being cleared by customs in the terminal as part of the factors inhibiting the terminal over the years.
But, in the defence of the terminal operators, its Chief commercial officer; Nell Fletcher said the management of APMT decided to adopt a medium plan of building a three storey building that will house Customs officers and clearing agents in the physical examination bay.
He said, "In the next 18 months, we will provide a three story building but before that we will be meeting with customs to discuss way of providing a temporary solution."
And while appraising the port concession programme, the Minister said that the concessioning of the ports in 2006 by the federal government has led to increased efficiency of sea port operations in Nigeria.
According to him, the terminal operators have undertaken critical investments that have transformed the ports, especially in finding a lasting solution to the long waiting time for ships that are coming into the country to discharge cargoes.
Impressed by what the terminal operators have achieved, the minister said, “any ship that comes into Apapa docks immediately, but the time of discharge will depend on the type of cargo to be discharged. Before the concession, the number of ships waiting to berth are many, that you see a large number of ship lining up to the Atlantic waiting to berth, but now it looks as if there is no business going on in the port, it is not so what we see now is due to the work that all these terminal operators has done in the port”
“We have come a long way, but we may not have got to the ultimate, but I think obviously with all the improvement and investment taking place we are heading to a situation where there is a significant headway. For instance the additional surcharge put on every containers coming into Nigeria has been removed and this has been a significant benefit to the importers and those who are doing business”, he affirmed.
However, on the success achieved since a portion of the port was concessioned to their company, the Managing Director of Apapa Bulk Terminal Capt. Muhamed Bashir, said, “the good thing that has happened in the country is the port concession, there is no doubt that ship makes money when it carries cargo from point A to B, so, ships coming to Nigeria port spend 12 to 14 days discharging cargoes that can be discharged in five days”.
“But since the concessioning, there have been a faster turnaround time for vessels that want to berth and there is no waiting time for any vessels coming into the country, also we have a deeper channel for berth, we have up to 12.5 meters in our berth now and we have been able to invest in silo capacity which was about 60, 000 metric tons when we came in, but it has now been up to about 260, 000 metric tons and we are still looking for space to expand”, he added.
He continued that his company has in the port what is mostly unusual, factories such as rice, sugar refineries and the infrastructural development are ongoing, vessels are protected and the company has invested over US$ 400 million in acquiring new vessels which they know they will be able to recoup within the 25 years of the concessioning period that they signed with the government.
On his part, of the managing director of ENL consortium, Mr Uche Egbonu, said that before the consortium came in, there were complaints by customers about plants and equipment. He however told the minister and members of his entourage that the terminal has invested heavily in the purchase of equipment for easy delivery of services, saying the consortium has less service delivery time.
“When we took over in 2006, we produced 1.6 metric tons per annum but as at 2011 and 2012 reports showed that we have done over 4.3 million metric tons over the two years and that has shown that concessioning is on course,” he concluded.
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