{"id":8046,"date":"2020-04-01T10:26:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T10:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=8046"},"modified":"2020-04-01T10:26:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T10:26:34","slug":"congestion-looms-at-lagos-ports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=8046","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Congestion looms at Lagos Ports\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

THE Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria, STOAN, has warned that a massive congestion is looming at the Lagos ports following the inability of\u00a0consignees and their agents to take delivery of their cargo. A statement by spokesman of the group, Mr. Bolaji Akinola, said that whilst it is good that the seaports will be working to support government\u2019s effort at curtailing the spread of the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, there was need to allow full movement of cargo across the country, to ensure their operations are not hampered. Akinola said: \u201cAll terminals in Lagos are between 90 per cent and 95 per cent full. Most of the cargoes are non-essentials. If cargo doesn\u2019t flow out, within days there will be no space in the terminals to discharge other in coming cargo. And some of the cargoes awaiting to be discharged include food and medicine. There is a need, therefore, to appeal to importers to pick up their cargo and not return empties for next two weeks in order to allow the prioritization of imports coming in.\u00a0If consignees do not remove their cargo in the next couple of days, the ports will become fully congested and it will be near impossible to discharge incoming vessels.\u201d He also said that the multiplicity of government agencies at the ports and at the ports\u2019 exit gates at both Tin Can and Apapa ports was compounding the \u201cpainfully slow delivery of cargo\u201d, adding, \u201cThese government agencies are working at odds with the Federal Government\u2019s policy on the Ease of Doing Business. He noted: \u201cThere are too many government agencies involved in the cargo release process, and after the cargo is released in the terminal, these government agencies including the Nigeria Customs Service conduct another round of checks at the port gate.\u00a0The situation has resulted in long truck queues inside the ports because the rate at which trucks exit the main port gate has is extremely slow due to these multiple checks.\u201d The STOAN spokesman also said that the challenge of slow cargo delivery was compounded at the Apapa Port due to the ongoing reconstruction of the exit gate, stressing: \u201cOperational continuity at the port is vital to our fight against the coronavirus disease. The ports cannot stop working. The only way to ensure that the country does not run short of vital supplies including food, medicaments, hand sanitisers and nose masks, which are essential kits in curtailing the spread of the deadly virus is to keep the ports working. \u201cThis is why everyone involved in the cargo release process and the logistics chain must sacrifice personal interests at this time for the national good.\u00a0We appeal to the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd) to prevail on his officials at the ports to reduce these checks.\u201d \u201cAt present, cargoes are checked inside the terminal, at the port exit gate and on Wharf Road. Three layers of checks by the same organization is excessive; It is killing businesses and negatively affecting the ports. We think the exit gate should be made to move fast so as to reduce the blockade inside the port,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria, STOAN, has warned that a massive congestion is looming at the Lagos ports following the inability of\u00a0consignees and their agents to take delivery of their cargo. A statement by spokesman of the group, Mr. Bolaji Akinola, said that whilst it is good that the seaports will be working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4,17],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Congestion looms at Lagos Ports\u2019 » WatchDog Plus Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=8046\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Odofin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=8046#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Business\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=4\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"\u2018Congestion looms at Lagos Ports\u2019\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u2018Congestion looms at Lagos Ports\u2019 » WatchDog Plus Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=8046","author":"Odofin","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=8046#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Business","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=4"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"\u2018Congestion looms at Lagos Ports\u2019"}]}]}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Odofin","author_link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?author=2"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=4\" rel=\"category\">Business<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=17\" rel=\"category\">Travel<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"THE Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria, STOAN, has warned that a massive congestion is looming at the Lagos ports following the inability of\u00a0consignees and their agents to take delivery of their cargo. A statement by spokesman of the group, Mr. Bolaji Akinola, said that whilst it is good that the seaports will be working…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8046"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}