COVID-19: NPA reports over 50% drop in Nigeria’s cargo traffic

The Port Manager of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Tin Can Island Port Complex (TCIPC), Alhaji Umar Garba, has disclosed that cargo traffic into Nigeria through the seaports has dropped above 50 percent.

Garba, who gave the figure while responding to journalists’ inquiries, said there had been a sharp drop of vessels’ traffic into the nation’s seaports due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Port Manager noted that globally the pandemic has dealt a big blow on shipping business and that the drop in inbound cargo to Nigeria was not peculiar to the country.

He said: “There has been a reduction in ship traffic, even though ships are still coming on a daily basis, but when you compare internationally, the traffic has reduced and it is because of  COVID-19, it is not just about Tin Can Port alone.

We cannot get cargo without linking it to the human beings doing the trading, people are not travelling, so the goods are limited, vessels are coming but the cargoes have dropped”, he maintained.

Garba restated the Authority’s safety measures at the ports, saying that port users are being observed by measuring their temperature before allowing them into port premises.

He said: “Nobody is seen either lying down or showing these symptoms, it is not every sickness you call NCDC, the port health are on the ground, and you should know that the port health is a major member of the NCDC team.

“Officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO) come round the port for assessment, at a time, we also invited them here to do sensitisation for our workers, so we are not resting on our oars.”