APM Terminals has deployed equipment for fast cargo evacuation – NPA boss
agos —Managing
of Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, has said that leading container operator, APM Terminals Apapa has deployed equipment and cranes necessary for fast evacuation of cargo at Nigeria’s premiere port, the Lagos Port Complex, Apapa, Lagos.
Usman, who spoke on a TV programme monitored in Lagos, also decried the manual inspection of cargoes by the Nigeria Customs Service, which she says does not promote port efficiency.
She said there is need for prompt deployment of scanners and automation of the cargo clearing process to reduce the burden of consignees.?According to her: “We’ll continue to engage with our stakeholders but we recognise that we must enhance efficiency and ensure consignees get their cargo in a timely manner. Some of the things we are
doing is pushing to ensure that vessels come in and cargoes evacuated in good time.?“We are working assiduously with the terminal operators and the Nigeria Customs Service to fast track the process of evacuating cargo from the vessel and importantly the inspection of cargo. This is something that is of great priority to the ports authority, government and more so for Customs.
“We need to deploy scanners at our ports so that our cargoes can be inspected using scanners. Right now, as a lot of consignees are aware, our cargoes are inspected physically. You can imagine how difficult and challenging that would be having cargoes that come into the country examined physically. We need to make sure that we put in place automation mechanism to improve port efficiency.”