Lagos – The Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mrs Hadiza Usman, on Wednesday urged port users to use rail transportation in evacuating their cargoes to facilitate trade.
Usman made the plea during her tour of Western ports in Lagos.
She said that roads had been over stretched with too many cargoes.
“It is still cheaper and less risky to convey cargoes via rail, ‘’ the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes her as saying.
The managing director, who held a brief closed-door management meeting on arrival at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC), Apapa, conducted an on-the-spot assessment of the workings of the various concessioned terminals.
At the APM terminals, she advised the management to rehabilitate the rail line to facilitate movement of cargoes to the hinterlands.
“We are going to liaise with the Nigeria Railway Corporation to see how the old rails would be replaced.
“It is our aspiration to see that cargoes, both containarised and bulk, get to their destinations via the rail.
“We have a mandate to facilitate marine trade as one of the ways of increasing public revenue.
“Therefore, we will partner with every organisation that can aid us in achieving that,’’ NAN quotes Usman as saying.
At the ENL Consortium Ltd., she advised the management, represented by the company’s Director, Mr Mark Walsh, to always ensure good work ethics.
Walsh was pleased with the message of the managing director concerning the use of rails.
He said that the management of the company would ensure a healthy work environment.
Other terminals visited by the entourage were: Greenview Development Nigeria Ltd., Apapa Bulk Terminal Ltd., the Apapa Port Control Tower and Eko Support Service Oil and Gas Free Zone.
She urged port workers to maintain good environment.
At the Lilypond Terminal, Usman was greeted on arrival by protesting freight forwarders who appealed to her to assist them in ensuring that vessels were stemmed (cargoes) to the dry port.
The freight forwarders said that the terminal, which had a capacity of accommodating over 15,000 containers, had been lying fallow in the last three years. (NAN)
