The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Senior Staff Association of Communication, Transportation and Corporation (SSACTAC) has said that the formulation and implementation of a National Transport Policy remains the only solution to the numerous problems in the Nigerian maritime sector.
The maritime union has also said that the turn around time of ships calling at the ports has not improved, almost 10 years after port concession.
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Senior Staff Association of Communication, Transportation and Corporation (SSACTAC) has said that the formulation and implementation of a National Transport Policy remains the only solution to the numerous problems in the Nigerian maritime sector.
The maritime union has also said that the turn around time of ships calling at the ports has not improved, almost 10 years after port concession.
President of the association, Comrade Omeiza Jimoh in an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily said that government should rather focus its attention on formulating a transport policy because, according to him, the policy will be able to streamline the various maritime and transport sector laws so that each agency will be able to understand their position and function comprehensively.
Umar said that reasons laws are not being implemented properly in the maritime sector is because there is no policy statement in place.
Speaking further, he said, "the policy is to streamline the laws so that each agency will be able to understand their position. For example, the law says you can farm a terminal to private operators for a number of years, but the policy will now give the conditions".
"No sector will prosper without any policy statement, with the policy statement, most of the interpretations to each law will be derived" he said
Speaking on the port concession exercise, Umar commended that safety of cargo and the terminals have increased tremendously compared to what was obtainable before concession.
He however lamented that the turn around time of vessels have not improved due to activities of petroleum tankers and the proliferation of petroleum tank farms around the port.
"If you talk of safety, we have improved, the channels are okay because bigger vessels can now come in, but the turn around time have not improved because we had the same routes before concessioning, before concessioning they were open, but they are now blocked by these oil tankers and the ports are choked with tank farms, automatically it is one step forward and two steps backwards" he said.
He lamented the bad roads leading to the ports in Lagos, according to him; the roads contribute a great deal to loss of man hour in cargo movement.
He said , "the roads are not good, the port concession is not a means to an end, but to further the chances of getting to where we are going"
Meanwhile, based on the recent extension of the contract of two terminal operators; 5star Logistics Terminal and Josepdam Limited by a period of five years, the union has challenged government to ensure that it expose terminal operators who are not living up to expectations in their contract agreement.
"Those who have not done well should not be covered, they should be shown the way out" he said
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