The federal government Tuesday queried the management of Port & Cargo Handling Services (P&CHS) over its inability to improve on its port automation processes.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Barr. Hassan Bello, who made this observation while on a courtesy visit to the P&CHS, lamented that on some occasions, it takes a cargo about four months to exit the terminal via barges.
- Sule Lamido and the disabled in Jigawa State
- Interrogating Lt Gen. Buratai’s “spiritual warfare’’ and Boko Haram’s resilience
In the area of automation, Bello argued that P&CHS has not been found to be appealing.
“In fact, the terminal scored 25 percent when other terminals were scoring 60 percent and 75 percent. By the first quarter of 2021, we need all the ports to be fully automated.”
He said, “There are issues we will like P&CHS to work on. This issues brothers on efficiency and a host lot of others.
“Government is trying as much as possible to fix the roads, which is about 75 percent completed.
“We know the roads are bad, but we will not take that as an excuse for Nigerians to be exploited.
The Managing Director of P&CHS, Mr. John Jenkins, while responding to the query, blamed the deplorable state of the ports access roads on the slow process of cargo evacuation at the terminal.
Jenkins said: “Yes, we can do more, but not that we are not doing enough. I don’t think we are under-performing, but I agree we can do better.
“In the area of automation, we are looking into this and very soon, we will be bringing in IT experts to help look into this.”
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
