Eromosele Abiodun insists that the electronic call up system also called Eto, introduced recently remains the final solution to the Apapa gridlock
In early 2019, Africa’s richest man, AlikoDangote, joined numerous port users and businesses to echo the daily suffering and the revenue loss by businesses and government due to the protracted gridlock on Apapa ports access roads.
Dangote had estimated that the country was losing about N140 billion weekly to traffic gridlocks on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, Lagos, the access road to Nigeria’s main seaports.
“The economy loses more than N20 billion daily and N140 billion weekly. It affects businesses across the country. All our operations in the hinterland in Ilorin, in Kano are operating at 40 per cent maximum capacity,” he had said.
Lamenting the state of roads in the country, he added: “Today there is no linkage road going from South West to the North. You have to go all the way through Ajaokuta, Obajana, Lokoja and you have to go by that uncompleted road Obasanjo (ex-president OlusegunObasanjo) started 13 years ago.”
Dangote is not the only one frustrated by the Apapa situation. In the last few years, Apapa has become a no-go area for visitors, hellish for those who reside and work there, and traumatic for business owners and those exporting or importing goods.
Cost of doing business at the ports has risen so high manufacturers are abandoning their cargo at the port. The call on government to fix the ports access road has however been heeded by government as work has since commence on the roads.
But like everything Nigeria, security personnel sent to maintain traffic turned the problem into an enterprise.As a result of extortion by security officials, haulage cost from Tin Can to any other part of Lagos has risen by more than 1,000 per cent from about N100,000 a year ago to about N1.2 million.
Recently, truckers raised the costs to move a container from the Tin Can Island Port, Lagos, to any other part of the city by 50 per cent, from N1.2 million to N1.8million.
As a result of the blockage of the roads, millions of containers are trapped in the ports and shipping companies have had to stay at several anchorages for between three to four months incurring all manner of surcharges.
On average, 100,000 containers carrying various cargos are discharged in Lagos ports monthly, with shipping companies now charging $6000 to sip a container to Nigeria, it costs shippers in Nigeria $600 million (N234 billion) every month to transport 100,000 containers to Nigeria.
In the first half of this year, it cost $1,000 to ship a 20-foot container to Nigeria from the Far East.
Today, the cost charged by shipping lines for the same service is between $5,500 and $6,000. Due to the massive congestion at Tin Can and Apapa ports, many shipping lines have started diverting Nigeria-bound cargoes to neighboring ports in Cotonou and Ivory Coast.
Importers, THISDAY learnt pay N25, 000 as demurrage per container a day and another N15, 000 as storage fees to terminal operators excluding 7.5 per cent value added tax (VAT).
This amounts to N12.5 billion daily demurrage charges on 500,00 containers and N7.5 billion storage fees.
Finding Solution
In a bid to find a permanent solution to the Apapa gridlock, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) collaborated with a private firm, Trucks Transit Parks (TTP) Limited to deploy technology and remove human interference.
TTP Limited is a cutting edge transportation infrastructure company that uses innovative technology to provide solution to the traffic challenges in Nigeria.
It was specially designed to manage truck traffic and parking issues within Nigeria. The TTP service, design and delivery is measured against safety, reliability, cost effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
Following the take-off of the electronic call-up system known as ETO, sanity returned to Apapa, a once thriving port city that was brought to its knees by a protracted traffic gridlock.
However, a few weeks after the system came into force, entrenched interest made effort to sabotage it leading to the return of traffic on the corridor.
Analysts said that was so because it was the first time in the history of the nation’s port operations that electronic call-up would be deployed to direct truck movement into ports in Lagos. Apart from the entrenched interests, who made an industry of the unfortunate crisis, there are other factors.
Top on the list of the factors is the continued bad shape of the access roads. The reconstruction work on the Tin Can/Mile 2 axis and Liverpool junction has been very slow.
In fact, the pace of work on the road has not been encouraging. The contractor handling the construction work should be made to expedite action on the road to ensure quick completion without further delay.
Another factor inhibiting the new call up system is lack of attitudinal change by truck operators and all those who have been the beneficiaries of the chaotic system. The truckers unions have pledged their support and willingness to make the Eto App work. But this pledge must be demonstrated in action and should not be seen as mere lip service. Be that as it may, there is no gainsaying that electronic call-up is the only solution to the Apapa conundrum.
TTP Assure Nigerians
Meanwhile, the TTP Limited has assured stakeholders that it is committed to ensuring that the electronic call up system remain effective and functional calling on all stakeholders to work with it for the betterment of all.
The Chief Operating Officer of the company, Mr. Temidayo Adeboye, told THISDAY, in an interview, that the solution to the problem was for all stakeholders to work together.
“The problem cannot be solved by just one entity. And we had a holistic plan to solve the entire traffic situation in Apapa and we are discussing with the Lagos State government.
“But when we looked at the demography of the traffic in Apapa, we find out that 30 per cent were oil and gas, then the remaining 20 per cent was fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), manufactures. Which has dwindled from what it used to be. And the reason why it dwindled was because the cost of manufacturing within Apapa with the gridlock there became too high for many FMCGs and manufactures there.
“In the first two weeks we came up with a solution but as they say when you fight corruption, corruption will fight back. There were lots of monies that were changing hands and people were profiteering from the chaos and weren’t happy when TTP came.
“So people started fighting back and the major fight back we had is the human technology interface. So you have the right technology to drive the process and it was a very reliable system, it was organised and guarantied easy control of traffic.
“But what we have seen basically is that people are trying to circumvent the technology, not wanting the technology to do what it is meant to do, trying to create loopholes in the technology, to slowdown the system in order to go back to what it used to be.
“So those are the challenges we are facing now. It has nothing to do with the technology, it has nothing to do with the plan, it is just has a lot to do with corruption trying to fight back,” he said.
He stressed that the company would continue to improve on the system despite the challenges.
“We are making progress and we have done a lot in a short time. So far we have processed about a 100, 000 trucks in the past three months. We have about 5700 different stakeholders, that transporters and transport companies. And the average daily truck count at the Apapa port is about 700 on the average.
There are a number of other terminals that have access to the port they are about 700. The Tin Can area we just deployed yesterday so we yet do not have the accurate statistics of how many trucks accessed the Tin Can port,” he said.
Stakeholders Pledges Support
In the same vein, critical stakeholders have pledge their support for the call-up system stressing that Eto will solve the Apapa traffic problem.
For instance, a coalition of truck owners’ operating in the maritime sector has urged its members to embrace the call-up system in order to ease the gridlock in Apapa and its environs.
The group, which is made up of Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) and Container Truck Owners Association (COTOAN), said the electronic call-up system is the best thing that has to the port in many years.
“In view of the gridlock staring the faces of truckers, stakeholders in maritime industry, Apapa residents and the public at large; all our members are hereby directed to support the call-up system.
“This initiative is to help regulate the movement of all trucks/tankers into the ports and tank farms, ”it said.
The group noted that the call-up system would reposition their businesses and put an end to all forms of corruption arising from the disorderly situation being experienced in Apapa.
It also solicited the support of other corporate truck owners including Dangote, Flour Mills and BUA to embrace the call-up system.
The coalition said all representatives of truck parks should to go to the associations’ office in Apapa for further briefing on the call-up system.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr. Hassan Bello, commended the NPA for the introduction of the electronic call- up system to ease the perennial gridlock on the Apapa ports access roads.
Bello, who commended NPA and its ingenuity at deploying Eto called on maritime stakeholders to be patient with the system as innovations are associated with progressive phases for success.
“I commend the NPA for the introduction of the e-call up system. The system is workable. People should have patient. Innovations are associated with teething problems; so, all that is required are some adjustment which NPA is already doing.”
“We must be mindful of those who have seen the innovation as a problem to their personal interests in the system. These are the people trying to derail the system. NPA, however, is on top of the situation and we see all the challenges becoming a thing of the past soon,” Bello said.
He therefore called on the maritime industry stakeholders, especially truckers and terminal operators, to cooperate with TTP Limited to make this system workable.
“I am happy that NPA has identified the problems, procedures and the infrastructure to make this system work, “he said.
Bello assured the agency of the cooperation of NSC to make the e-call up work and change the fortunes of the nation’s ports and Nigerian shippers.
According to him, “the NSC will work with NPA to ensure the success of the new system on the ports access roads.”
Also speaking, the Vice President of the National Association of Licensed Customs Agents (ANALCA), Dr. Kayode Farinto, told THISDAY, that the electronic call-up system was a brilliant idea that will change the status quo at the nation’s seaport.
However, he called for the cooperation of security agencies to allow the effort, aimed at solving the Apapa gridlock work and urged the government to adopt the intermodal port system.
He also called on the federal government to open up the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway that is 80 per cent completed.
He said: “What is happening is that at night, the road construction company will use heavy blocks to barricade the road and will only open it for any truck who gives N20, 000 to the security agencies. From Tincan Island Port to Mile 2 along Apapa Oshodi road they are there extorting truckers. They constitute a nuisance along that corridor and if they are taken out, it will solve the problem to some extent.
“The government has to relocate all the tank farms in Apapa; if that is not done, there is no miracle that we can have. We will continue to have gridlock in Apapa. The residents of Apapa are crying daily.”
Farinto added that the only solution to the crisis was for the government to embrace the intermodal port system.
He said the barges that were only recently introduced to reduce the pressure on the road have been balkanised by entrenched interests.
“If you want to move cargo via barges now, it is expensive and frustrating. If you bring in the best experts in the whole world to come and manage Apapa traffic, that expert will be disgraced in under one week. Look at the beautiful idea brought in by NPA to solve the problem.
The electronic call-up, he assured, will work despite the initial challenges adding that, “It would worked despite the human factor. There are people who believe it is their right to make money from the chaos. We have officers in Area B who claimed to have been posted directly from the Office of the Inspector-General of Police and there is a specific amount they collect from each truck each day. And they collect the money openly before everybody – very glaring, “he stated.
