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Private investors that won the deal to take over the operations of Tin-Can Island and Lilypond Truck Parks are currently working out modalities to begin operations at both parks, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has said.
With this development, private operators will now oversee movement of trucks accessing Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports, at the completion of the modalities.
Jatto Adams, general manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications of NPA, who confirmed this to BusinessDay on a phone, said both investors actually took over the parks on April 2, 2020, but are currently trying to map out the modalities to operate both facilities.
Read also: Tin-Can Customs generates N31.2bn in March amid coronavirus lockdown
“This is why the NPA has not been able to come out with any pronouncement concerning the takeover of both parks by new investors,” he said.
According to him, the authority is yet to know how both parks would be run by the two investors, whether it would be on pay- as-you-use basis.
He said NPA was also drafting the agreement with the private investors, assuring that it was only when all the arrangements are concluded that the authority would make public the terms of the transaction.
Remi Ogungbemi, chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), told SHIPS & PORTS that the Tin-Can Trailer Park was handed over to MOB Integrated Services Limited, while the Lilypond Truck Park would be managed by Truck Transit Park Nigeria Limited.
Ogungbemi also confirmed that the investors are yet to roll out modalities for the management of the truck parks.
He believed that the new arrangement would eliminate extortion of truck drivers, reduction in the number of security operatives and clogging of trucks along the port access roads.
He further said that for effective management of both parks, that all trucks including petroleum tankers must be compelled to leave the roads to their private parks and garages where they would be called when it is their turn to load.
“I believe that things would change for the better. The management of the parks should use it to ensure orderliness and sanity on our roads. The parks should not be run as usual and the management should not allow personal interests to override majority interest,” Ogungbemi.
He further advised that all security agencies including the task force team involved in the passing of trucks should be replaced with new hands in order for them not to circumvent the new arrangement.
“There should also be a numerical system that would indicate the number of trucks that would be called and each truck must have identification tag so that as the trucks are coming, the number would be displayed to avoid shunting,” he said.
