The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has advocated a 3- pronged approach namely; collaboration, sanctions and harmonisation to dismantle and permanently overcome the notorious Apapa gridlock which has for over the last six years slowed down economic activities and slurred the nation’s Ease of Doing Business ratings.
According to the President, Al- Mujtaba Abubakar, “As a Chamber, we suggest and encourage a sustained and expanded collaboration between the Port Authority and the Lagos state government to dismantle the forces behind the incessant gridlock at the Apapa port. There is need for the government to introduce sanctions in the enforcement process. Multiple agencies operating at the port also needs to harmonize their operations to reduce the current hardship in the clearance of goods at ports.”
He was speaking at a well attended webinar organized by the chamber Monday to review the efforts by the new Ports management to implement more forcefully the Electronic Call- up System recently introduced by the Ports management to manage access crisi at the port. Speaking further, he disclosed that the chamber had been consistently involved in attempts to resolve the crisis, which led to organising a roundtable in 2018.
“The well attended (2018) event came up with several solutions among which were proposals for an e-call up system to manage trucking system at Apapa. We were glad that the management of NPA eventually introduced the digital system among other new ideas to ease traffic flow at the port.
Regrettably “however, the implementation of the e-call up system has not gone as smoothly as envisaged,” he said.
“Consequently, ACCI launched a survey study on experiences of users and stakeholders with the e-call up system. A synopsis of the report will be presented to the NPA management at this webinar, while the full report of the study will be presented to the NPA Managing Director in Lagos at a later date.”
The NPA acting MD in his presentation at the Webinar titled; “Apapa Gridlock: Accelerating Implementation of E-call Up Policy” organized by Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) said the traffic Management along the access roads to the Ports in Lagos has been a major challenge to the Nigerian Ports Authority.
He said the inadequate physical infrastructure (truck parks) has been identified as a major constraint in the implementation of the e-call up system and to nip this challenge in the bud, the NPA has mandated all shipping companies involved in container operations to establish empty container holding bays.
“The e-call up system is hinged on three components namely; Physical Infrastructure, Information Technology and Stakeholders collaboration. There are also hinderances to accelerating the implementation such as; the e-call up system like any other novel project has its teething problems and the problems faced daily by truckers requires the intervention of Lagos State Government, Messrs. Truck Transit Park Limited and Nigerian Ports Authority.”
Another notable stakeholder present at the webinar was the Executive Director of African International Trade and Commerce Research, Mr. Sand Kalu Mba, as well as port operators, importers and exporters.