| Upcoming
Events
Nigerian
Dredging Summit 2011.
Pictures of Past Dredging Summits
2010 Summit
2009
Summit
2007
Summit
|
|
|
|
|
IN
THE NEWS...
Special focus on five
years of years of private terminal concession in Nigerian ports: Ro-Ro
port under Fivestar Logistics Ltd management.
The port concession programme began effectively
in 2006 after the international competitive bidding which produced the
successful terminal operators now holding sway at most Nigerian seaports.
At the Roll-on-Roll-off terminal in Tin Can Island port at Apapa Lagos,
Fivestar Logistics Ltd (FSL) won the bid to run the facility as a privatized
terminal for 15 years beginning in April 2006. Many things have since
changed at this facility as with most other terminals handed over to
private concessionaires. Throughput has increased. Security of goods
under storage has been enhanced and consolidated. Foreign shipping lines
like MOL and K line which left the country for neighbouring ports have
since returned to Nigerian ports while some new container shipping lines
are now calling Nigeria like CSAV, Nile Dutch, UASC. This is another
clear signal that change has happened to the international perception
of the situation of things at the ports.
Similarly, revenue generation, at FSL has increased significantly for
all stakeholders, especially since the concessionaire developed and
maximized available land spaces that were previously left fallow or
consigned to uneconomic uses. Employment generation has been upped from
the previous situation and the semblance of growth and modernity has
become discernible in an area that was known in the old dispensation
as a den of wharf rats and a society of discredited stevedores. Yet
some challenges still abound.
A week before the interview with the terminal manager of FSL, Capt Jon
Jon Peters, the federal government had announced that of all the coterie
of assorted security agencies working in seaports around the country,
only four, some say six, are now allowed to maintain presence and inspect
goods passing through the national gateways. The issue of too many government
agencies at the ports was a longstanding point of contact for delays
in goods clearance at Nigerian ports. Capt Jon Jon revealed that while
this was a welcomed announcement, all practiced eyes at the sector were
watching to see if it would materialize this time around. Previous announcements
by past regimes concerning the same issue went unheeded and the agencies
managed to find raison d’etre to continue to put boots right on
ground at the quays. With a few days to the end of the two-week deadline
given by the Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Finance Minister and Coordinating
Minister for the Economy-led team that included the Honourable Minister
of Transport, Senator Idris Husseni, the word is mum at the ports.
Incidentally, other revelations are coming on the heels of closer examination
of the workings of multiple agencies at the ports. It has emerged that
the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) is represented by not less than three
arms regulating customs at most Nigerian ports, including Customs Enforcement
Unit, Federal Operations Unit and others. Are these different or parallel
units of NCS or do they work in tandem? Again, do all three have to
carry out two, three or more separate checks on cargoes before release
or are they represented by just one arm? If there are multiple units
of NCS at the ports, this may be contributing to the various notions
of how many agencies are still left to operate at the ports. So that
whereas many Nigerians believe that only four agencies have been left
to operate at the ports, if a multiple representation by parallel customs
bodies are added up, Nigerian seaports are still brimming with not less
than six or eight agencies left to continue the harangue with importers
and exporters – a number that is obviously less than the bargain
announced by the ministers for expedited goods clearance.
Secondly, it has now become apparent that congestion at the Lagos ports
will not disappear soon. One of the principal reasons for this is the
unrelated application to which adjoining land acreages around the port
has been put in times past. A school of thought represented by the views
of Capt Jon Jon has pointed out the futility of citing a secondary school
in the general surroundings and very close to Tin Can Island port, just
across the small lagoon from the port. Or even the location of a petroleum
tank farm adjacent to port grounds! This, aside from industrial safety
complications compromises economic usage of what could have been prime
storage space for imports or exports. Locating storage spaces within
port grounds have the added advantage of distribution traffic (lorries,
trucks, etc) from spilling onto public highways. But now, in the absence
of such good planning, the inner roads of Tin Can Island and Apapa ports
and the Apapa-Oshodi expressway are clogged daily with articulated trucks
of various descriptions conveying laden and empty containers to and
from many off-dock storage grounds and giving rise to the unending loathsome
traffic jams now associated with Apapa in general.
Another challenge for Tin Can Island port terminal operators is the
lethargic repair of the inner port roads which results in very unsightly
scenes where lorries litter the thoroughfares and even some quay areas.
That the situation has lasted for many years is a sad commentary on
the competence of NPA as a landlord. Even as at press time, the repair
work at the inner roads at Tin Can Island port is a sorry sight revealing
only a scattered struggle. At Port Harcourt port, the same story of
neglect dogs its access roads. It’s a national shame that the
golden goose has been paid only lip service by politicians, resulting
in handicap and, therefore, a drawback to Nigeria’s chances of
realizing its natural position as a successful maritime hub for the
sub-region.
Or, is it not shameful that after more than thirty years of charging
port users the 2% National Automotive Council Levy and 7% port levy,
among other levies, the authorities, and especially NPA management,
cannot find it in their schedule to insist on properly developing, equipping
and positioning ports nationwide? The worst aspect of the puzzle for
the Nigerian ports industry is that with the Lagos ports complex adjudged
the busiest and most lucrative in the country, an affliction of logistic
problems like the ones enumerated above ought to instigate a flurry
of measures by the federal ministry of transport to untangle the web
of clutter, but this is not happening. Instead the news is handy about
ministerial visits to Antwerp, Singapore, Malaysia, China and other
developed places, ostensibly to visit their port infrastructures –
visits many in the inner circle and even some of the hosts might know,
were nothing but gambits for, sometimes, as paltry as estacode allowances
and similar perks. Because, in all reality, what is so gargantuan and
impossible about managing the Lagos ports complex, for example, in such
a way that their activities do not impose a commuter’s nightmare
to the average visitor to the port city of Apapa? Rather, the roads
of Apapa and environs, up to Mile 2, are now so unpredictable that many
will go there only if they run out of options. And this unfortunate
situation threatens to suffocate the gains being made in the port concession
programme.
A third challenge to the gains of the port concession agenda is the
hiccups presented by one of the remaining bureaucracies in Nigeria’s
port industry, namely, pilotage. A ship comes calling and the time it
spends waiting for a pilot is equal to the time of total operation,
loading and unloading. All the concessionaires have the same stories
of woe to tell about the performance of pilots charged with taking in
ships to berth and taking them out to the fairway buoy for their departure.
Ships have been known to wait for pilots for upwards of four to six
hours – a scenario that would hardly obtain if the service were
deregulated so that pilotage firms compete for service provision to
the industry. A situation where the shipping line has no choice but
to depend on NPA to provide the pilot without recourse to any other
options gives way for lethargy and could even encourage bribery and
corruption. On the question of solutions, opinions vary. While Capt
Jon Jon prefers privatization, Danny Fuchs of Lagos Channel Management
strongly argues against it. (His interview is in another section of
this edition.) But the answer must lie somewhere in between.
|
|
The
scorecard on Nigerian seaport reforms
It’s ten years since the Obasanjo’s presidency kick-started
the search for better fortunes for Nigeria’s port industry. Once
upon a time, the ports were a haven for wharf rats. No more. Ships then
spent weeks in port to load and discharge. Stevedores were unruly, practicing
the infamous “akube” system, where shipping lines paid for
16-men gangs but get 8 men instead. None could do anything about it
for many years. The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) was then
a glorified gang-up of port industry warlords. Former transport minister,
Chief Ojo Maduekwe, shocked the nation when he exposed bags of money
brought to him at night to soft-pedal the wheels of the reforms which
started rolling during his tenure.
Read more...
Other Articles &
Interviews:
Mr Pier Luigi Carrodano on his
work with Gen. T Y Danjuma's companies and the Chinese sea trade with
Nigeria...NEW
Engr Akin Olaniyan on need for NIMASA
to return to original mandate and harnessing cabotage trade...NEW
Dr. Wilson Odafe Omene on Niger
Delta politics, amnesty programme, Nigerian maritime and local govt,
etc....NEW
Capt
Adeyemo on River Niger Dredging...
Prof
P.C. Nwilo on his assessment of NIWA during sabbatical ...
Mr
Nseyeng Ebong on his 8-year tenure as rector of Maritime Academy
of Nigeria Oron...
Chief
Dumo Lulu Briggs as
chairman of Maritime Academy of Nigeria Oron, his vision...
Engr
Muyiwa Omasebi: The face-off Between NIWA, MMSD and Lagos State Govt.
Otunba
K Folarin: The Collapse
of Nig. shipping lines.
P.L.
Carrodano: How govt
can revive Nig. shipping lines.
Sam
Epia: The struggles
of Nig shipping lines with cargo reservation scheme.
Jeff
Gibb: Intricacies of
the equipment market in Nigeria.
Environmental
Quality Monitoring.
Environment: "How
many choppers has DPR got?" - Chief Ogunsiji.
Dredging the Niger Delta: Interview of Ben Efekarurhobo.
Role
of Surveying in the Dredging Industry
G.B Liman:
Of Myth, Reality and Resource Control
Dredging
Law: A judgment on the ownership of a sand dredging site by the
Court of Appeal.
Dredging
Law:
a.
Lagos State Attorney General Interpretes state law on sand dredging
and stockpile.
b.
NIWA public notice on Lagos State intervention in inland waterways regulation.
|
|
|
|
| 
TRAINING COURSES.
Efficient Dredge
Master Training
Train your dredge masters, engineers, electricians and deckhands in
relevant skills for efficiency, productivity, equipment safety and maintenance.
All trainees are time-tested with written and practical tests. Transcripts
and attendance certificates given.
Courses:
1. Dredge Appreciation / Refresher –
knowledge of safety procedures for equipment use:
PPE; Safety operation onboard dredge; Maintenance routine; Checks for
optimal production while pumping; working with boosters; splicing and
fixing cables, cleaning and painting; Etc. For Dredge crews mainly.
Class room lectures and Practical sessions onboard dredge.
2. Firefighting
and Protective Measures (including respiratory protection). For
Dredge crews, Field and Technical workers. Class room lectures and Practical
session at the Fire Bay.
3. Basic sea
survival techniques and the use of lifesaving equipment. Class
room lectures and Practical sessions at the standard swimming pool with
professional gear.
For details of availability, duration, registration, fees and teaching
logistics, please contact the organizers:
Dredge Skills and Marine Training Centre Ltd.
E187, Ikota Shopping Complex, VGC, Ajah. Lagos Nigeria
Tel.: +234 1 7928166 or 08033378735
Email: dredgeskills@gmail.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
