Over the past few years, Port users lost several billions of naira to the traffic gridlock and illegalities on the roads leading to the nation’s Seaports in Lagos.  But sanity has been restored following the recent cleaning of the busy port access roads of refuse, shanties, illegal checkpoints, and trucks by the NPA and LASG, writes Godwin Oritse

Before now, the federal government, importers, exporters, clearing agents and other road users were losing several billions of naira to traffic gridlock, illegal activities on the entry points to the Apapa and Tin-Can Island seaports- Apapa-Ijora and Apapa-Oshodi expressway on a yearly basis. The gridlock and illegal activities defied all known solutions as truck drivers spent minimum of two weeks before they could access the Ports, thereby, making importers accrue daily surcharges on their cargoes. Aside from storage and demmurage surcharges accrued by importers, the gridlock also increased cargo dwell time and vessel turnaround time.

During the crisis period, Nigerian ports became uncompetitive among its contemporaries in West and Central Africa as importers were diverting cargoes destined for Nigerian seaports to neighboring countries due to the port inefficiency development that became a source of concern to the federal government. To solve the traffic challenge, the federal government through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), rallied private sector – Dangote and Flour Mills- to firstly, reconstruct the Ijora – Apapa expressway.