The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Rt. Honourable Emmanuel Jime, has said that Nigerian seaport has the longest cargo dwell time in the world.
Jime stated this at a One-day training workshop for Maritime Police in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The theme of the workshop, which was a collaboration between the Council and the Maritime Police Command, was “Understanding the Impact of the Police in the Maritime Industry”.
The ES/CEO who was represented by the South-South Zonal Director of the Council, Mr. Glory Onojedo lamented that while in other places like Singapore and Lomé, it takes six hours and seven days respectively for cargo to be cleared, in Nigeria, it takes an average of twenty-one (21) days in Nigerian ports. This, he said, is due to interference by many groups thereby causing delays.
According to him, these delays ultimately lead to high prices of goods and services, in fact, the slow delivery process at the ports and high transit time of cargo delivery are part of the factors responsible for the abysmal ranking of Nigerian ports in the Global Perception Index on ease of doing business.
The Assistant Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Kaoje represented by CP. Evelyn Peterside who is the Commissioner of Police for the Eastern Port Police Command in her remarks, stated that the Maritime industry in Nigeria is a significant priority sector in the economic scheme of the country with enormous gains. She said it was the duty of the maritime police to ensure that there is smooth operation and room for business to thrive at the nation’s ports.
The Superintendent of Police, Nigeria Police Force, Maritime Police Command, Lagos, SP Olalekan Fabiyi gave an insight on the Mandate and vision of the Inspector General of Police which involved deploying cutting edge policing technology to strengthen the Force’s capacity.
Other presentations were delivered by the Registrar of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Academy, Francis Omotosho and Tope Cadmus, Senior Operations Officer, NSC, on “Police as an agent of economic change” and “The need for interagency collaboration as a strategy for efficient cargo delivery” respectively.
