THE chairman of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), Princess Vicky Haarstrup has said that activities of private jetties and tank farms are impeding the development of the ports.
Speaking at the Taiwo Afolabi Annual Maritime Conference held recently,Haarstrup bemoaned the prevalence of tank farms and private jetties to the development of the nation’s seaports.
According to her, “There has to be an enabling environment for the private investors to effectively develop port operations. The terminal operators have done their bit. We have developed the ports. We have equipment, we have the technical skill to do the job, we have the required manpower, but government needs to do its own bit to bring us to the level that we want to be. Government needs to do its own bit for us to be able to do our job in line with how it’s done in advanced climes.
“Another thing I want to talk about is concerning the port location. When the ports were being located, I don’t think government had it in mind the kind of port they wanted. You can see that the location of the Apapa and Tin-Can ports do not give enough room for expansion.
“Aside this, we have a lot of private jetties and tank farms. As we speak, there are over 60 tank farms in Apapa and Tin-Can Island. It is only in Nigeria that this kind of thing happens. These are issues government needs to look into, so that we private investors can be able to build full capacity at the ports. Government needs to address these issues so that we can develop the ports’ capacity to an acceptable global standard.”
SIFAX Group, a multinational corporation with diverse interests in maritime, aviation, haulage and logistics, oil and gas and hospitality, and other maritime experts recently urged the Federal Government to adopt the public-private partnership (PPP) model to address the challenge of port infrastructure deficit.
This was the unanimous conclusion of leading academic, business, legal and maritime experts who gathered for the second edition of the Taiwo Afolabi Annual Maritime Conference, a partnership between SIFAX Group and Maritime Forum of the University of Lagos, which was held on the university campus.
The academic, business, legal and maritime experts included Dr Taiwo Afolabi, Group Executive Vice Chairman, SIFAX Group; Princess Vicky Haastrup, Executive Vice Chairman, ENL Consortium; Mrs Funke Agbor, Senior Partner, ACAS-Law, Major Henry Ajetunmobi (Rtd), Executive Director, SiFAX Haulage & Logistics Limited; Mr Bola Ashiru, Strategy & Operations Lead, Deloitte West Africa, Mrs Margaret Orakwusi, Chairman, Shipowners Forum; Alhaji Mohammed Bulangu, former Managing Director, Ports & Cargo Handling Services Limited, among others.
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