A Maritime Stakeholder and
freight forwarder in Port Harcourt, Donald Oni, has expressed worries over the state of development at the Nigeria ports, saying that there are no standard at the port, which has negatively affected the overall business activities.
Speaking to The Tide in Port Harcourt on the state of the Nigeria ports Oni explained that many factors have inhibited smooth cargo clearance at the ports.
He said that such situation had on many occasions caused disagreement and even led to industrial actions at the ports, which in many instances, he said had triggered payment of demurrage on goods not cleared in good time.
According to him, the prevailing situations at the ports show that a lot more ought to be done to make them competitive and attractive.
Oni also stated that the freight forwarders have faulted the concession regime, where terminal operators are operating without any form of monitoring from government agencies.
“No agency actually monitors the standards to be maintained by these port concessionaires, and due to that, operations at the ports are haphazard.
“We the stakeholders insist that Nigeria ports must be competitive when compared to ports in neghbouring countries or else, the ports would continue to experience cargo diversion to these nearby countries”, he said.
Apart from the problems of inadequate infrastructure, Oni said that importers are also contending with the problem of high port charges.
He said that investment by terminal operators are geared towards attaining efficiency by developing power and infrastructure at their areas of operators.

Corlins Walter