More Vessels Laden with Petroleum  Products, Food Berth

More vessels laden with petroleum products, food items and other commodities have arrived in Nigerian ports.

The ports include Africa’s largest container terminal and Nigeria’s busiest port, Apapa Container Terminal (ACT), Apapa, Lagos and Tin Can Island Port Complex (TCIP), Apapa, Lagos.

While some of the vessels have berthed and their content being discharged, others are awaiting to get berthing clearance.

According to Shipping Position, a daily publication of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), no fewer than 37 ships laden with petroleum products, food items and other goods are expected to arrive Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports in Lagos from this weekend to May 15.

The authority which has its corporate headquarters at NPA House, Marina, Lagos, the ships contained buck wheat, ethanol, sofa ash, base oil, frozen fish, steel products, ethanol, bulk corn, and containers laden with goods.

Similarly, four ships are expected to arrive with premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol. Another ship laden with aviation fuel is also expected in the nation’s seaports situated in the Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, Lagos.

According to the NPA publication, 11 ships had arrived the ports, waiting to berth with bulk fertiliser, container, aviation fuel and petrol.19 other ships are at the ports discharging empty containers, bulk wheat, frozen fish, bulk gypsum, aviation fuel, yellow maize, soya beans, bulk gas, bulk fertiliser,  containers and PMS.

Meanwhile, the NPA has unveiled what it called a “Safety, Information and Operations Centre (SIOC)” at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC), Apapa.

The authority said the unveiling of the SIOC was part of efforts aimed at boosting port efficiency and creating the enabling environment for business at the port.

Speaking at the unveiling of the centre in Apapa, the Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, said the initiative is to provide visitors and customers an avenue where they can engage with the authority.

She said the centre would help provide prompt information dissemination to all port users and will operate round the clock.

This, she said, will help prevent influx of people into the port as according to her, “if people can get certain information, they might not need to go into the port”. 

She added that the facility also includes a customer care unit where stakeholders can lodge complaints on any issue concerning port operations and can get prompt response from the authority.

Usman said that the resuscitated electronic display information board at the entrance of the port which is an extension of the centre will also display relevant information to port users and stakeholders.

Her words: “This initiative is to provide visitors and customers an avenue where they can engage with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). They are required to come here for safety briefing on any issue attributable to access into the ports. We also establish a Customer Care Centre which will be handling complaints and suggestions and will help the authority respond in a timely manner and understand the challenges of the customers as they look into the operations of the ports. This event is another step in the right direction in the ongoing port improvement efforts. Our objective is to continue lifting the Nigerian Ports Authority in terms of infrastructural development in order to achieve sustained enhancement of efficiency and provision of enabling environment for business in the port”.