Nigeria Content Online

To make the Calabar
seaport viable and busy all year round, the federal government should
implement a deliberate policy of diverting smaller vessels from Lagos
and other ports prone to congestion to Calabar.

General manager of
Eco-Marine Plc, Kingsley Iheanacho, said the lack of some basic
facilities has made the Calabar Port unattractive to importers.
Eco-Marine is one of the concessionaires of the port.

Speaking yesterday
at a one-day stakeholder workshop organised by the Nigerian Shippers’
Council, South-South zone, Mr. Iheanacho listed a six-point agenda for
the federal government to consider in order to make the Calabar port
viable.

Top on his proposal
is completion of the dredging of the Calabar river channel within a
defined time frame to the 9.4m, as contained in the agreement;
immediate removal of shipwrecks from the quays, in view of the
environmental and security risk they pose to the terminal; completion
of the rehabilitation of the public power supply to the port;
restoration of the 30 per cent rebate on ship dues hitherto granted to
container vessels; and federal government fulfilling its promise on
road construction.

Mr. Iheanacho said
port reforms can only work where the enabling environment is created,
noting that “Cross River State government has been assisting in
reaching out to the federal government on the need to make Calabar port
work.” He regretted that the port is yet to attain its full potential
as a hub for importers.

“The terminal
operators have regularly demonstrated their commitment to the success
of the port concession exercise, as can be seen in their commitment
towards repositioning the terminal for efficient service delivery,” Mr.
Iheanacho said.

He said when his
company took over the port from the federal government in August 2007,
the terminal was in dismal state where container vessel turnaround time
was measured in days and weeks as a result of the appalling state of
the facilities.

“All the equipment
taken over were bad and mostly beyond repair and nothing reasonable
could be done on those equipment other than to junk them and procure
new ones, if the objectives of the privatization were to be met,” he
further said.

Zonal coordinator,
South-South zone, Nigerian Shippers Council, Maurice Effanga, in his
speech, said the council would continue to protect the interest of
Nigerian shippers and the national cargo interest in matters relating
to the shipment of goods to and from Nigeria, and to offer advice to
the federal government.

“We receive
complaints from our members against lack of vessels to bring their
cargoes to Calabar or to evacuate their exports to foreign importers.
The dredging of the access channel and rehabilitation of roads linking
the port to neighbouring towns, amongst others, are challenges facing
the shippers with respect to access to shipping services,” Mr. Effanga
said.

According to him, the poor condition of the port has made
import/export trade difficult “as members have to ship their
consignments through other ports and later truck them to Calabar, at a
high freight cost.”