Clearing agents to shut Lagos ports over gridlock

The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), yester- day, threatened to shut both Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports in Lagos due to the incessant gridlock on the ports’ access roads. Olayiwola Shittu, presi- dent, ANLCA, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.

He said his members were getting ready to down tools, saying that the situation had become unbearable, as the only thing that could stop the action of his members was urgent measures by govern- ment and its agencies to ad- dress the gridlock.

The ANLCA constitutes a major arm of Nigerian port operators and generates a huge sum of revenue in form of cus- toms duties through their cli- ents (importers and exporters).

Shittu said a crucial meet- ing of the association had been scheduled to hold on June 30, adding that the strike would be one of the major issues to be discussed, saying with the gridlock, economic activities in the ports had collapsed and man-hour loss was enormous.

“It takes an average of four days for a trailer to haveaccess to load at the termi- nals. Without solution soon, our association may have no option than to close the ports for fuel tankers to take over permanently,’’ he said.

Jonathan Nicol, president of Shippers’ Association in Lagos State, said a State of Emergency in the maritime sector was inevitable as a result of the gridlock.

According to Nicol, the effect of the incessant grid- lock is grossly affecting busi- nesses, as the volume of containers cleared from Apapa and Tin-Can port had reduced by more than half.

The shipper said revenue had also been affected, say- ing that under normal atmo- sphere, Apapa port should be delivering between 300 and 400 containers daily, but the figure had been reduced by more than half as a result of many trapped empty containers on trucks.

“Shippers (importers) are losing container depos- its on those trapped empty container-laden trucks to the gridlock,’’ he said, noting that exporters too could not send exports cargo into the ports to meet up with booked ves- sels to transport the goods out of the country to ports of destination.”