Congestion hits Lagos Ports
With 11 vessels have been waiting to get a space to berth in Lagos Ports Complex (LPC) in order to discharge cargo since December 2014 heavy congestion hits Lagos Ports General Cargo Terminal.
More than 251,860 metric tons (MT) of cargo are currently stranded at Terminal C and D of the LPC, Apapa, operated by ENL Consortium Limited. The industry observers say that this has become a regular feature in that terminal, raising questions about efficiency of its cargo handling equipment.
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said in its daily publication - `Shipping Position’ that of this figure, 130,382 MT is bulk rice, 56,578 MT are general cargo and 33,000 MT is fertilizer. Gypsium is 25,000 metric tons and fish is 6,900 MT. While five ships arrived the port since December 4, 2014, others arrived earlier in January 2015.
The Shipping Position, a daily statistics of ship traffic, forty nine ships laden with containers, foods, petroleum products and other goods would arrive Lagos ports between Jan. 9 to Jan. 30. There is no indication that the vessels awaiting berth are being delayed by any form of documentation requirement.
Nigerian government has not yet taken any effective steps to address the congestion in the nation’s seaports, industry observers say.
The Chairman of the Ports Consultative Council (PCC), Chief Kunle Folarin has called on the federal government to initiate measures and policies that will solve the problem.
According to Folarin one of the measures through which this can be achieved is the expansion of the Lagos ports to accommodate more cargoes. He argued that there was the need to construct container berths and more stacking areas to accommodate what he called “the growing container trade”, across the globe.
