Posted on October 17, 2017
By Chris Agabi, Daily Trust
Last year, the Federal Government launched the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and the Port Service Support Portal (PSSP) at Nigerian ports. These platforms, coordinated by the Nigerian Shippers Council, were the first step toward streamlining processes and procedures at the ports.
Sometime this year, the Vice President, then acting president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, signed three executive orders on ease of doing business in Nigeria. Two of these orders had far reaching consequences on Nigerian ports. Following these executive orders was the launch of 24 hour- operations at the seaports by the NPA and the streamlining of approved agencies to be physically present at the ports.
Basically, all of these were to reduce the cumbersome and primitive way used to clear goods at the ports.
Stakeholders say to be competitive and for Nigeria to be a preferred destination for cargo, we must streamline and simplify our procedures at the ports, else, we will be losing cargo to neighbouring ports.
The Federal Ministry of Transportation, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and sister agencies like the NSC are already doing extensive work on ease of doing business at the ports.
Recently, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Managing Director/CEO, Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman, told a team from the Oxford Business Group, United Kingdom that the NPA was working to improve operational efficiency.
In trying to achieve this goal, the NPA entered into a joint venture agreement with private companies which gave birth to the Lagos Channel Management Company (LCM) and the Bonny Channel Company (BCC).
The Bonny Channel Company’s main goal is to create and maintain a safe navigational passage for all marine users in the Eastern ports of Bonny Island, Onne, Okrika and Port-Harcourt. The Lagos Channel Management’s core operations are centred on the management and dredging of Lagos channels.
The BCC the joint venture has complemented the technical capacity of the NPA with regard to the maintenance and capital dredging of the Nigerian channels. The company’s dredging of the Bonny Channel has made it possible to maintain draught at 14.3m.
The BCC in 2009 dredged the Bonny channel from fairway buoy to KP27.5 to a depth of 13.8m which enabled the NLNG company to operate for 24 hours every day of the week with no tidal restrictions. Also in 2011, the BCC deepened the channel even further for the NLNG to accommodate larger vessels.
“The work has been carried out in a cost-effective way based on the fact that competitive rates charged to the NPA are more or less within the same range with that of third party jobs carried out by the BCC as per transfer pricing preliminary works done by PricewaterhouseCoopers on transfer pricing documents,” the Chief Executive, BCC, Kristian Faber, said.
As a result of the company’s dredging operations, the WAFMAX vessel in 2013 was able to enter the Onne Port, and since then has continuously entered the port (the biggest vessel to date to enter the port). In order to accommodate the WAFMAX vessel, technical studies were required as well such as dredging the approach channel and parts of the Onne Port.
The company is reported to have removed 14,000,000m3 of materials by capital dredging, 61,000,000m3 of material by maintenance dredging, installed and monitored 83 buoys, removed 45 wrecks and invested over 6,000 hours in training and knowledge transfer.
The company has also pledged its support for the NPA in establishing the Port Training Institute. With the provision of 50 per cent of the fund required for the purchase and installation of the simulator for the centre. This will go a long way in improving standard at the ports.
“We need to be sure that the infrastructure we have is able to address the needs of the vessels that come into the country. We have noted some errors about our channel management that we need to expand on. We have channel designs in the Lagos pilotage area that we are looking at expanding to ensure that the drafts are deep enough to accommodate big vessels, and the berth locations are strong enough in terms of infrastructure to take such large vessels in,” Bala Usman noted.
She said concrete efforts were being put in place to raise standards of Nigerian ports to be globally competitive.
She said the Lagos Channel Management (LCM) company Ltd had removed about 100 critical wrecks in the Lagos Channels since the authority’s partnership with it began years ago.
“This is indeed a milestone in the efforts to improve port efficiency, safety of navigation and in order to boost the good fortunes of the organization and the community at large. The partnership with the LCM has helped to bring the depth of the channels to more than 13.5 metres,” she said, adding that “the biggest of the WAFMAX series of vessels would soon be calling regularly at the Lagos ports.”
The need for efficient dredging of the Nigerian channels is critical if Nigeria wants to become the maritime hub of the West African sub-region.
Already, the LCM has begun a dredging programme that will see bigger vessels berth at the Lagos ports. LCM presently manages about 12 miles (22km) of channels in the port of Lagos: Inner Channels Commodore , Apapa, Badagry and Harbour entrance. It commenced capital dredging achieved since 2005. As from 2014, LCM had been dredging to a new channel design. This will strengthen out and widen the channels to allow larger vessels to enter Lagos.
LCM said it has carried out an extensive wreck survey of Lagos port, both visually, and with sophisticated side scansonar (to locate and plot submerged wrecks). We also carried out a magnetometer survey in 2007 to enhance and verify initial information collected.
On evacuating wreckages it said the survey identified over 70 submerged wrecks, that require urgent removal, throughout the Navigable Channels of Lagos Port. 48 critical wrecks have already been removed by LCM, with the program ongoing.
To become an international standard maritime destination, Nigerian ports must attract huge vessels like the Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) and the Ultra Large Crude Carriers (ULCC). This is because international shipping trade has shifted attention to economies of scale, thereby focusing on building bigger vessels.
Thus countries that must benefit from these economies of scale must dredge their channels, strengthen quays and introduce larger cranes for efficient delivery of cargoes.
The Group General Manager, Eco Marine International, Balogun Moruf Adedayo, was recently quoted to have said; “The global shipping industry is now in an era where we can do 7,000-14,000 TEU capacity vessels. Nigeria will need to have deeper channels to be able to accommodate these bigger vessels (bigger tonnages) because shipping is about economics of size.”
The Managing Director, LCM, Danny Fuchs, recently said: “In order to achieve the required depths and channel dimension within Lagos, we needed DEPASA to charter three addition dredgers to increase production. Two of these: ‘Poseidon and Astra’ are brought to Lagos for specific projects, as and when required. Poseidon is a large heavy duty TSHD capable of dredging hard material in most weather condition, whereas Astra, being a lot smaller, is perfect for shallow or restricted waters,” he said.
“LCM also strove to improve aids to navigation, including the re-instatement of shore beacons and the upgrading of the entrance channel buoys with active AIS transporter,” Fuchs said, “While LCM is now relatively well established, our continued belief is that with the co-operation of the concessionaires and private jetty operators, we will not only achieve the stated objectives for which we were created, but also surpass them. Already, dredging done in the last 12 years exceeds what had previously been done in the last 40 years, and our goal is to continue on that note, and put Lagos on a par with other major hub ports throughout the world,” he added.
Source: Daily Trust
