Transport Minister, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, applauds improved cargo, ship dwell time

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has applauded the improvement in cargo and ship dwell time at the Lagos Ports.

The minister who gave the commendation at the inauguration of “Operation Free The Ports’ And Terminals Corridors” to be handled by the Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) comprising stakeholders in the maritime industry.

The minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Margaret Ajani, said that the improvement of vessel movement from five hours at anchorage to 90 minutes to the berthing area, as well as incident reduction from seven to 10 days to between one and four hours, has a positive effect on operations at the port. Amaechi explained that the improvement in that aspect of port operations was a result of the work by the PSTT. He said with the success recorded so far, it is expected that the team will achieve the same level of success with the port access corridor.

According to him, “The Nigerian Port Process Manual, NPPM, will bring everybody’s SOP into focus and we will come together as a team to achieve the desired result. When Moses Fadepe (Coordinator of the team) was speaking earlier, he said previously when a vessel arrives; it takes five hours to navigate from anchorage to the berth. Now with your activities, it now takes 90 minutes and we are not celebrating that.

“It used to take seven to ten days to resolve complaints, now it takes less than four hours to resolve complaints. The achievement may be small but it impacts our ease of doing business.