The Chairman of Presidential Monitoring Committee on Ports Reform, Prof. Sylvester Monye,  last Thursday said his committee had reduced cargo clearance at the seaports from 39 days to seven days.

Monye told newsmen in Lagos that his committee’s target, which started work two months ago, was to achieve 48- hour cargo clearance in line with developments at Cotonou and Ghana ports.

“Our mandate is not only to achieve 48-hour cargo clearing regime, but to ensure that the road users within the Apapa area have comfort in conducting their legitimate business,” he said.

Monye said that a technical committee had been constituted to identify the processes and challenges of achieving the 48- hour cargo clearance target.

He said that the committee had presented a template of five steps which included cargo pre-delivery period from the time of arrival of the vessels.

Money said that the templates would still be subjected to consultations of stakeholders.

“We want the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, National Food and Drug Administration and Control and Ports Quarantine to review the templates.

“Once this is done, we would present it to the Economic Management Team and it would thereafter be adopted as processes for 48-hour cargo clearance,” he said.

The Committee Chairman said that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) had ordered for more pilot vessels to bring in ships at nights.

He said that the Mile 2- Apapa expressway was a nightmare, adding that it had become completely unacceptable to have trucks constituting mayhem on the roads.

Monye said that there would be fewer trucks on the road in the next few weeks, adding that a triangular movement of the trucks would be adopted.

“We have also successfully achieved 24-hour port operation regime.

“For the first time since 1970, we began 24-hour operations at ports, but people are not coming forward to do business at night,” he said.