By FUNSO OLOJO
A maritime consultant and port operator, Lucky Amiwero, has appealed to the Federal government to give a special consideration to goods trapped at the ports due to the current terrible state of port access roads.
In an open letter addressed to the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osibajo, Amiwero, who is also the National President of Council of Managing Director of Customs Licensed Agents, observed that the state of the ports assess roads has incapacitated easy entry and exit of trucks to evacuate goods that are now trapped at the various terminals.
‘’ The condition has assumed an alarming proportion because of daily occurrence of destruction of loaded goods that always falls on Cars, Trailers and Sometimes on persons.
‘’ As Member of the Presidential Committee on the realization of 48 hours clearance of cargo from Nigerian Ports and Borders, Presidential Task Force on the Reform of Nigeria Customs Service Committee on Port problem and Inter- Ministerial Committee of National Facilitation Committee (FAL) (IMO) and The Task Force on the Review of Port Charges, we are indeed, concerned about the state of our Port access roads In Lagos area, that accounts for almost 75/80 per cent of Cargo throughput in the Country’’, Amiwero observed.
He declared that the clearance of goods from Lagos Ports is associated with high demurrages, rents, risk of carriage and continuous delay, which, he claimed, has heightened the cost of transportation, increase the number of days to access and exit the port with the attendant carriage risk of continuous falling of containers due to terrible condition of the assess road within the Port area.
‘’This has greatly increased the cost due to inconsistency, lack of transparency and predictability in the clearance of goods, which requires government urgent intervention’’, he noted.
The notable freight forwarder also noted with concern the deplorable condition of the Port access roads linking Apapa, Tincan Island, PTML Lily Pond and Brawal with serious damage portion, deep potholes and flood around the roads which he said always experience falling containers from trailers on private moving cars and sometimes persons.
‘’The effect of the negative impact created by the damaged road, potholes and the gridlock on the port access road, necessitated the NATIONAL COUNCIL OF MANAGING DIRECTOR OF LICENSED CUSTOMS AGENTS (NCMDLCA) to petition the Federal government under the late President Musa Yar’Adua on the state of the Port Access Roads and its implication to the nation’s economy .
‘’Eight years after the approval by the President in 2009, the Port access Roads leading to the economic gateway to the nation that contributes almost 40 per cent of non -oil revenue to the national coffers is still not rehabilitated till 2017
‘’The neglect is a serious setback to the nation, as the bad potholes, flooded Port access roads and the gridlock constitutes almost 25 percent of the cumbersome, lengthy procedure and port process, which accounts for associated delays and the highest Port cost in the sub-region that encourage cargo diversion to other neighboring country’s Port and places the nation at the bottom of ease of doing business.’’
Amiwero, therefore, urged the Federal government to grant waivers and special concessions on this category of goods which are presently trapped at the port.
‘’There is urgent for the government to intervene to grant a waiver on the goods that are held up in Lagos Ports, which is extremely difficult to access and exit the port.
‘’To access or exit out and in of the port take days, which resulted in high demurrages and rents and the risk of the carriage to drivers along the access roads, that is extremely dangerous and has attracted multiple costs of transportation in Lagos Ports.
‘’The port access road constitutes a stumbling block to our International Maritime traffic as it has limited trade facilitation process by constituting death threats to port operators, daily destruction of loaded goods from the ports and a huge threat to lives and properties for smooth and uninterrupted operation of armed robbers.
‘’We hereby appeal to the federal government to urgently come to the aid of the port users, operators and the importing community who are daily exposed to the risk of falling containers on cars and persons, destruction of loaded goods and daily armed robbery’’, the maritime expert pleaded.