President of the Nigerian Association of Stevedoring Companies, Mr Bolaji Sunmola, has called on the Federal Government to establish more sea ports to meet the increasing demands for ports by stakeholders in the country.

Sunmola who made the call while fielding questions from journalists at a forum on Tuesday in Abuja said that for a nation with such huge population as Nigeria, the functional ports were definitely not adequate to serve the import and export needs of the nation.

“This is a huge nation of tremendous economic activities, there is no way Lagos port and Apapa port and Tin Can port which are the hub of port activities in Nigeria can meet up with all the cargo throughputs we have.

“Unfortunately, the other ports are not meeting up to standards in terms of some technical or environmental difficulties that have been seen over years so Lagos is carrying most of these big chunk.”

Sunmola disclosed that three more sea ports would soon be established to augment the existing sea ports in the country.

“We have about three other ports in the pipeline: we have the Lekki Free Zone Port, the Ibaka Deep Sea port in Akwa Ibom then we have the Olokunla Port Project too between Ogun state and Ondo state.

“These three ports coming on stream will still enhance the activities of port operations in Nigeria despite we still have the Calabar and Port Harcourt port with the attendant problems.”

He said that the Ibaka port was a naturally occurring deep sea with over 15 meters depth, stressing that the benefits accruable from the port would be remarkable.

He said that with the concessioning arrangement, cargo figure had risen up tremendously making it even more necessary to establish more ports.

On the issue of high charges by the ports, Sunmola said that the prices were determined by competition, adding that over time, the charges would reduce.

“By and large, I would still advise importers to come to Lagos ports, to come to Nigerian ports, it’s still your best bet.”