Lagos Ports Are Not Congested — STOAN

The Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) says contrary to widely held notion, the Lagos Port Complex, Apapa and the Tin Can Island Port Complex, both in Lagos, are not congested.

In a statement it issued weekend, STOAN said both ports are operating at less than 70% capacity.

The association said the major challenges facing the ports are the road access, which have become severely dilapidated.

STOAN Spokesman, Bolaji Akinola, who issued the statement weekend, said, “It is important to correct the understanding of the public about the ports. The hinterland infrastructure leading to the ports in Lagos, namely the roads, are at breaking points. The ports are not congested and are not at breaking points.

“Most of the terminals in the two ports are operating below capacity. The busiest terminals are operating at less than 70% at the yard and 60% at berth. So there is no port congestion anywhere as of today.”

Akinola said the ports in Lagos have capacity to handle beyond the volume of cargo they are handling at the moment if government pays attention to the issue of dilapidated port access roads as well as put an end to the manual handling of cargo clearing processes deployed by the Nigeria Customs Service.

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He said port operation is not about the size of the port only, but about the efficiency of the connecting facilities around the port.

The STOAN Spokesman also said ports in other parts of the country are not immune to the challenges of bad road.

He said the Onitsha River Port, recently constructed by the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), is not functional because of bad roads.

He called on the Federal Government to embark on “urgent comprehensive repairs” of the roads leading to all the ports in the country, especially the Lagos ports. He also tasked the government on the provision of functional truck parks in Apapa to stop trucks from parking on the roads and impeding the flow of traffic.