A business executive, Jerry Ogbobo has appealed to the Federal Governemnt and the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) to establish more container ports in the South-South and South-East.
He said that the South-East in particular requires a minimum of three container ports to boost the eceonomic growth of the country.
Ogbobo, conglomerate business executive who made this known in a chat with aviation correspondents at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa shortly on arrival from Lagos, said the ports were necessary because the South-South, especially Port Harcourt and the South East region have become an industrial hub zone.
He said that no port in Port Harcourt and environs is designated a container port inspite of the huge industrial activities going an unlike in Lagos where ports are scattered all over, including container ports.
Ogbobo said that because the South-East is land locked, inland container ports would expose the region to international markets.
“Souther-East is a commercial region what we do most is trading and industrialization. That is imate in us and for us to be able to enhance it and export products, we must have access to the global market.
“We already have an international, but we need the second are, which is a cargo terminal which is why the inland cargo terminal is important.
“Without the inland ports, it means that accident rate that had been reported all these years as a result of bad roads will continue to increase and a trader will either import or export his goods from distinct ports”, he said.
He stressed that the container ports must come with full complements of a regular seaport and a port’s authority structure.
According to him, establishing the ports was long overdue, adding that Onitsha port should not be considered as a seaport, but a river port.
“The intention of the people that conceptualized Onitsha Rivers Port could not have been to serve the region as a port because it has shallow waters.
“The dredging would not have served the purpose because it is meant to accommodate all vessels”, added.
Ogbobo therefore urged the Federal authorities not to play politics with realities and give proper attention to establish container ports in the South-East and South-South to create balance and fast-track development.

Corlins Walter