Lagos lockdown: Shippers move to decongest Apapa ports to eradicate gridlock

Nicholas M. Ibenu Jr., Lagos

Ensuring the 14-days lock down amidst the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Nigeria, roads leading to Apapa are usually characterized with so much traffic that people would rather walk than drive. The presence of truck drivers and tank farms, for oil storage in the Apapa axis, is a major contributing factor to the unrelenting traffic in the area.

Shippers Association of Lagos State (SALS) has called on port industry players to take the opportunities created by free flow of vehicular traffic during the 14-day lockdown in Lagos, to decongest the ports.

Jonathan Nicol, president of SALS, who commended NPA’s proactive efforts in dealing with issues in the port since the outbreak of coronavirus, said two weeks lockdown would help to decongest the port and eradicate the Apapa gridlock, if immense evacuation of containers was carried out.

“We hope the Apapa traffic would vanish after the two weeks lockdown. Government Agencies should assist the Nigerian Port Authority to achieve this objective. The Port Health and the Federal Ministry of Transportation to synergize to curtail the dreaded coronavirus within Port complexes,” he advised.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) is perfecting arrangement to deploy coaster buses in strategic locations in Lagos to help ease the transportation challenges freight forwarders may encounter during the period of lockdown.

Boniface Aniebonam, founder of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), who disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos, said the approval to deploy the buses was granted by Hassan Bello, executive secretary of the NSC.

“We have it from good authority from the ES of NSC that coaster buses are being deployed at strategic locations in Lagos to help freight forwarders to ease transportation to the ports,” Aniebonam said.