When the Senate Committee on Works, led by its chairman, Kabiru Gaya, came recently to Apapa for an emergency meeting, their mission was clear. They came for a dialogue with the relevant stakeholders on the decongestion of traffic gridlock in Apapa.
The committee chairman told the meeting, which was well attended by the stakeholders that included the federal ministry of works, Lagos state ministry of transportation, federal roads safety corps (FRSC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), port users, transport unions, truck owners, Apapa residents, business owners in Apapa, etc, of their commitment and determination to find lasting solution to Apapa.
“We are here as part of our oversight functions and we are determined to end the Apapa gridlock with the cooperation of all the relevant stakeholders,” Gaya intoned, noting that “what is happening in Apapa is a national embarrassment; we have received several reports of how residents of Apapa sleep outside because they cannot access their homes while many businesses have been forced to either relocate from Apapa or close down completely.”
Apapa is Nigeria’s premier port city. It is home to the country’s two busiest seaports- Apapa and Tin Can Island. These two ports, according to available records, account for 75 percent of export and import activities in Nigeria. The port city as a whole is valued at N20 billion a day.
But the port city has lost its soul. According to the stakeholders at the emergency meeting, there is a serious disconnect between the federal and state governments on the one hand, and shipping companies and truck owners on the other. Each seems to be working in silos and at cross-purposes, the stakeholders pointed out.
Adenubi Patrick, a traffic consultant, told the Senate committee that government agencies, particularly the customs and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) contribute significantly to the Apapa gridlock, pointing out that these two agencies have multiple checkpoints that impede traffic flow.
The submission of Remi Ogungbemi, chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), was quite instructive. He noted that when the Federal Government concessioned the ports, it did not give any consideration to, or planned for the trucks that would be coming to the ports.
“All the places that trucks used to park have been taken over, hence the need for a system that will make movement of trucks in and out of the ports seamless and orderly; the taskforce that is now controlling movement of trucks is no solution to Apapa problem; it is only a part,” he said.
The Senate Committee was also told that the activities of some of the shipping lines operating at the ports were highly objectionable as they did not conform to what NPA called Standard Operation Procedure and it is such that their jetties were not user-friendly.
They were accused of exploiting importers in various ways by increasing rates and charges arbitrarily; deliberately delaying operations, sometimes using manual recording in order to force importers to pay demurrage on extended goods dwell time.
Of all the submissions made at the meeting, NPA had the most robust, forward-looking and futuristic presentation. Besides committing to opening the Lilypond Container Terminal as a temporary measure to take away trucks off the roads and bridges to free them for other road users, the ports authority also proffered other solutions to the Apapa debacle.
The Lilypond Terminal and the Trailer Park being constructed along the Apapa Oshodi Expressway were to be opened at one-day interval. But whereas the Terminal has been opened and in use by trucks, the Trailer Park is still being delayed by the Federal Government and its bureaucracy.
Ihenacho Ebubeogu is the general manager, security, at the NPA. He noted that Apapa was congested for obvious reasons. According to him, the volume of trade and business in both Apapa and Tin Can Ports has increased by more than 1000 percent, far above the ports installed capacity.
This, he disclosed, explains the reason NPA has introduced import wavers for importers that are ready to use the Eastern Ports. But there are challenges. Apart from NPA and the importers expecting other government agencies like NIMASA, Customs and SON to follow suit by intruding wavers or reducing their charges, the water channels leading to the eastern ports are not navigable by ocean-going vessels.
As a long term solution to Apapa problem, Ebubeogu talked about creating a port area that will extend the sphere of operations at the ports to areas like Mile 2, Orile, Kirikiri Town, Costain, etc which would require enormous investment as it is done in other economies.
Though there is improvement in the traffic situation in Apapa, especially at the Ijora-Apapa bridge axis with the trucks almost completely off the bridge during the day, nothing has happened considerably that could be linked to the visit of the Senate Committee members who left with a promise to return a week later to ensure compliance with the resolutions reached at the meeting.
Unlike other economies including Brazil which was at par with Nigeria in terms of development, Nigeria is yet to take the development of its ports seriously. Political and ethnic considerations are the twin evils that have held the country and its economy down, frustrating any positive thinking towards nation building and economic development.
Besides lack of political will on the part of government to invest in Apapa, vested interests which come in various forms make providing solution to Apapa very difficult if not impossible. Apapa needs heavy investment, especially in infrastructure, for it to be better than what is today.
It should be noted that a port by itself is no guarantee of a city’s growth, but improvement in port infrastructure should be a priority investment for the government. Like Nigeria, lack of efficiency in seaport operations was once hindering Brazil’s economic and urban growth.
But unlike Nigeria, Brazil has recognised the need to improve its port infrastructure with US$3 billion allocated to port investments under the government’s Growth Acceleration Programme, and another US$14 billion earmarked for port upgrade works to be carried out by the private sector.
Conversely, in Nigeria, in spite of all the revenues that federal and state governments generate from the ports, the political will is not there to invest some of the revenues in improving access roads infrastructure in and around the ports.
The Federal Government has very strong presence at the two ports with its revenue collecting agencies which collect money for it in form of import duties and levies by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS); royalties, rents and dues collected by the NPA; dues and levies collected by NIMASA; certification levies collected by SON, among others.
In 2018, NCS collected a total sum of N1.2 trillion in revenue for the government. It also impounded a total of 5,235 seizures with duty paid value (DPV) of N61.5 billion following its anti-smuggling operations. The 2018 revenue was N164.8 billion more than that of 2017, which was N1.037 trillion.
Altogether, in the last three years, the NCS has generated about N3.1 trillion in revenue and much of these revenues come mostly from its activities at the Apapa ports, yet government is not ready and willing to invest even 10 percent of this revenue into making Apapa what it is supposed to be as a port city.
Global trade is increasing and that is amply reflected at Apapa ports as alluded to by NPA’s security chief. BDSUNDAY checks reveal that the value of exported goods as a share of global GDP rose from 15 percent in 1990 to 25 percent in 2013.
As trade keeps growing, it directly boosts the economic development of the cities which handle cargo traffic. Indeed, a closer look at 126 of the world’s major metropolitan areas reveals that cities which serve as major seaports experience faster growth than inland cities. This is not the case with Apapa.
As a port city, Apapa has degenerated in value considerably with its congested ports, degraded environment, decaying infrastructure, devalued property, declining business activities, and disillusioned investors, especially property owners whose assets have lost over 50 percent of their market value.
Our checks reveal further that ports play a substantial role in the economies of metropolitan areas. In Rotterdam, for instance, port-related activities accounted for 74,000 direct jobs and 13 percent of total metropolitan GDP in 2007. In Shanghai, the number of jobs related to port activities reached 840,000 in 2012, up from 347,000 in 2002. Shanghai’s port accounted for 7.6 percent of the city’s GDP in 2012.
Unlike these cities, the number of jobs that has been lost since Apapa became what it is over 10 years ago and how that impacts negatively on Lagos economy can only be left to the imagination. For a country like Nigeria where unemployment figures are in excess of 20 million, investing in the Apapa ports and resuscitating the eastern ports are just the next best things to do at the moment.
How this could be achieved should be the concern of a Senate Committee that says it is committed and determined to find solution to a problem that has rendered an otherwise flourishing port city almost unviable and useless.
CHUKA UROKO
