Nigeria’s maritime must be efficient, corruption-free — Amaechi

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has said the Nigerian maritime space must not only be efficient but also corruption-free.

 He said those with the responsibility of managing the ports must deliver on both efficiency and weeding out corruption at the ports 

He spoke in Abuja at the stakeholder’s roundtable feedback of the nine-month report of operations of the port standing task team the Nigerian Ports Process Manual (NPPM).

Mr. Amaechi who was reacting to the report that corruption has been reduced by the implementation of the NPPM said the ports are still largely inefficient.

He also noted that Nigerians unfortunately still go to Ghana to understudy them when Nigeria should be flagship efficient ports operations in Africa.

 The task team reported that after nine months of work, the administration of the Port Service Support Portal (PSSP) together with the SOPs and Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM) have combined to help improve the experience of Ship Captains calling on Nigerian ports.

The report said the “Exercise has improved the number of containers examined daily from an average of 120 to 250 containers.”

“This ultimately will have an effect on the cargo dwell time, Ship Turn Around Time, Berth Occupancy Rate Efficiency, Speedy cargo delivery, reduces congestion and creating more space thereby increasing the efficiency of the yard capacity” it noted.

The Executive Secretary, the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) Mr Emmanuel Jime told journalists at the roundtable that harmony of ports inspection is paying off.

“I believe we are able to see from the reporting that some amount of progress has been made in the way that we are beginning to have quality delivery of services in our ports particularly in the southwest. I’m talking about Lagos Apapa, and Tincan” he said.

He said the new measures will also be extended the services of the tax team to the eastern port as well, talking about Onne, Rivers.

On the challenges, he said, “the reporting shows that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done in the ways that we are cooperating with each other.”