SIFAX Group urges FG to address infrastructure deficit for ease of business

Worried by the high rate of infrastructural decay around the ports in the wake of the new Executive Order on the Ease of Doing Business, SIFAX Group, one of the terminal operators in the nation’s seaport, has identified lack of critical infrastructure as hindrance to the success of the Federal Government’s drive to improving the process of doing business at the ports.

Taiwo Afolabi, Group executive vice chairman of SIFAX Group, who described the Ease of Doing Business initiative of the government as a welcome development following the bottlenecks encountered in the service delivery process at ports, urged the Federal Government to address the problem of infrastructure deficit to complement the Executive Orders signed recently by the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

According to him, fixing the roads leading to the Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports, which have become source of concern for all businesses, would not only aid the initiative but also bring relief and order to one of the country’s economic gateways.

“The Executive Orders on Ease of Doing Business are good initiatives that would improve customer experience, particularly at the nation’s points of entry. I want to commend the government for it. However, I want to submit that the initiative should be an all-encompassing one, where other hindering factors, especially critical infrastructure, are attended to without delay,” he said.

Afolabi said that customer experience cannot be improved when the importers and exporters find it extremely difficult to transport their goods in and out of the ports because the roads are in a sorry state. “Containers fall on these roads on a daily basis with attendant losses. Workers, residents and business owners in the area are not finding things easy as well.”

“We appeal to the government to thoroughly review other inhibiting factors to doing business in Nigeria and immediately tackle them with the urgency with which the Abuja airport’s runway was fixed. Only then we will truly improve the customer experience in the ports,” the SIFAX boss said.

Uzoamaka Anagor-Ewuzie