APM Terminals reiterates commitment to workplace safety

APM Terminals Apapa Limited, Nigeria’s leading container port operator, has reiterated its commitment to enhancing safety at workplace, as it celebrated the 2018 Global Safety Day.

The Global Safety Day is an annual international awareness-raising campaign geared towards promoting safe and secure working environment for workers.

Speaking at the event, Martin Jacob, managing director of APM Terminal Apapa, said that safety has been the company’s watchword over the years and assured that APMT would continue to focus on enhancing safety standards.

“For APM Terminals, safety is the license to operate. This year, we have decided to hold the safety day in common with our other brands to portray our new theme, which is “Stronger and Safer Together”.

“We want all the people that come to our premises to be safe and for them to go back same. So, we would continue to focus on developing our safety standards as well as training and educating our people, including truck drivers. Having truck drivers outside their cabin is a big issue because globally, that is where you have more fatalities when you have people outside their safe working zones,” he said.

Also speaking, Gildas Tohouo, managing director of Maersk Nigeria, equally reaffirmed the company’s commitment to the safety of its employees, adding that everyone across the shipping and logistics value chain have vital roles to play in avoiding unsafe behaviors.

“We are all responsible for the safety of ourselves and our colleagues at sea, shore, Inland Container Depot (ICD), terminals and onboard vessels. For us at Maersk, constant care is one of our core values, as well as making sure that our colleagues are safe.

Tohouo said that global safety day enables the company to reaffirm its commitment and remind its staff about the very important values around safety.

“We do not joke with safety. It is at the centre of our operations. If you do not tell people about it, then you do not make them think about it. We hold ourselves accountable to it and every member of our staff goes through training on safety to highlight the importance of safety to our operations,” Sesan Ibitoye, country manager of Damco, said.

Other stakeholders, who attended the event, commended APM Terminals Apapa for maintaining a high level of safety and security in its operations.

Remi Ogungbemi, chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), said that since inception, APM Terminals has been at the vanguard of promoting safety, which has helped reduce the rate of accidents at the port.

AMAKA ANAGOR