Dakuku Peterside
The
Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety
Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has said that for any country
to achieve efficiency at its ports, intermodal transport system is an
essential factor to consider.
The
DG who was addressing journalists in Lagos noted that in order to
attract investment to the maritime sector, a seamless transport
system is very crucial as there must be a good connection between the
road and rail to the ports.
Accordingly,
Dr. Peterside stated that “taking maritime for instance, if
the lands transport system is efficient, vessels idle time in the
port will be highly minimized or completely eliminated, thereby
reducing the turnaround time of vessels. When the turnaround time is
low, the berth occupancy ratio of the port will be high and the port
will be more efficient, more competitive and more profitable”
Speaking
further, the NIMASA DG observed that port congestion is mainly caused
by the inability to evacuate imported goods out of the ports, which
can be attributed to the inefficiency of land transport connections
to the ports.
“When
the connection is inefficient, the cargo dwell time will increase,
thereby causing congestion. The resultant effect of this is that
there will be no spaces left to discharge cargoes and offloading from
vessels will be stopped, pending evacuation of the already discharged
ones. Whenever this happens, vessels will be delayed, the revenue of
the port will drop, shippers will incur unnecessary demurrages and
the port will become unattractive” Dr. Peterside
said.
The
DG who highlighted the impact of intermodal transport to the maritime
sector as; improvement on the cargo handling time in the ports,
improvement of security in the ports, reduction of damages and
losses, ease of transfer to other modes of transport and faster
transportation to the final destination amongst others. He noted that
it is a greater enabler for multimodal transport system, which is a
means of door to door delivery of goods using different modes of
transport.
Furthermore,
he used the opportunity to assure the international community that
the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led Federal Government is leaving
no stone unturned to ensure that the access roads leading to Nigerian
ports are very accessible so that vessels accessing our ports do not
exceed their dwell time.
While
canvassing for more investment in the Nigerian maritime sector with
an assurance of return on investment, he said the Ease of Doing
Business initiative of the Federal Government, which has seen
Nigeria, moved up from 169th position in 2017 to
145th in 2018 is a step in the right direction
intended to bring about more investment opportunities. He noted that
it is hopeful that Nigeria will rank higher in the next rating. “We
are also engaging the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to create a
specialized interest rate for acquisition of assets for our
shipowners, aside working towards the disbursement of the Cabotage
Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) as this will also give room for a
full-fledged Cabotage regime and more job opportunities created”, Dr.
Peterside said.
It
may be recalled that the Dr. Dakuku Peterside led Management of
NIMASA has continued to attract foreign direct investment through
continuous partnerships and collaborative initiatives, all geared
towards the realization of a robust maritime sector.
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