PSTT visits Lekki port, set to replicate Apapa, Tincan ports successes.

…emphasises zero tolerance for corruption.

Having achieved success at the Apapa and Tincan ports in Lagos at the quay side and examination bays by entrenching the Standard Operating Procedures as contained in the Nigerian Ports Process Manual, the Port Standing Task Team seeks to replicate the success at the Lekki Deep Seaport

Thus informed the visit of the team led by the National Coordinator, Mr. Moses Fadipe to the facility on Wednesday

Explaining to the representatives of the management of the port, Fadipe stated how the team has been able to reduce turnaround time of vessels and corruption in the port to the barest minimum through strict monitoring of the activities of government agencies in the discharge of their statutory roles in the port.

Fadipe emphasised on the zero tolerance of corruption by the government even as he enthused on how the team has been able to eliminate collection of souvenirs by government officials from ship captains.

According to him, the terminal operators must endeavor to position containers overnight.

“By 8.am, no container will be positioned again. We expect the Customs to coordinate this process with all agencies participating in joint examination of cargoes, it commence at 10am and stops by 4pm.

“We are concerned about evacuation of cargoes from the port, and how it would affect the cost of doing business. We have noticed the ongoing road construction and the wideness of the roads to accommodate trucks is a concern” he said.

The PSTT Boss further interrogated the conduct of the government agencies present at the port, saying that there must be an electric platform where vessels transmit manifest before getting to the port, without all agencies necessarily flooding the vessel for checks.

Responding, Deputy Chief Operating Officer of Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited (LPLEL) – the promoters of Lekki Deep Sea Port, Mr Daniel Odibe assured that, despite the number of government agencies present at the port, the automation of the port is important to streamline human contact.

“We have the portal scanners which make it faster to scan a container, you can drive through the scanner under 33-seconds. This is sufficient for the amount of cargoes we plan to handle within the next few years of our phase one.

We hope that if every agency keys into that, it would create an efficient means of examination” he said.

Also responding, Manager/ HSE & Community Liaison Officer of Lekki Port, Adurayemi Ogundele said the port is exploring the option of evacuating cargoes by barges and in future by rail network.

He also assured that Lekki Port was designed to be a trans-shipment hub for cargoes in west and Central Africa and that engagements are in top gear to bring this to reality.

On cargo evacuation, he said “We have been discussing with a company that has ocean-going barges, we have had one or two operations and it was quite satisfactory.

The roads constructions are currently ongoing while some have been completed.

“At the construction stage of this port, it is known that it would be a transshipment hub for the country.

There was a minute three weeks ago on transshipment of cargoes, there has been some signified interests, everything is in progress, the first of these meetings was held at our office at Victoria Island.

So, for trans-shipment, it is work in progress, and at the end of the day, we would achieve our aim”.

The PSTT is a creation of the Presidency, domiciled under the Nigerian Shippers Council as port economic regulator, with extra support from the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, Department of State Security (DSS) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).