By Steve Agbota
As the Lekki deep seaport nears completion and commercial operations expected to commence by fourth quarter of 2022, the former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr. Hassan Bello, has warned that the port should not be used as a destination for cargo examination by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Bello who stated this in Lagos, said that cargoes arriving the Lekki port should be evacuated to off-dock facilities for required Customs examination. This, according to him, will help prevent the problem of long cargo dwell-time at the Lekki Port, as being experienced at the existing Lagos ports in Apapa, the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) and Tin-Can Island Port Complex (TCIPC).
In his words: “There should not be any examination of cargo at the port of Lekki, cargo should go to off dock either in Ogun State, Oyo State or other bonded warehouses. We should leave Lekki port to just receive goods and send it to the dry ports.
That is another revolutionary thing we have to do. There should not be Customs at the Lekki Port for examination. Goods should not be examined at the port. Port is a transit place. You just transfer it to an off-dock facility, let the Customs go there and examine the cargo. We have to depart from all what is happening in Apapa and Tin-Can so that we have a new port otherwise it will be the same thing.
“Why would you go and have 21 days waiting for your cargo to exit? The cargo dwell time at the Lagos ports is one of the longest while the average is seven days in the region and that is what we should aim for. One day, it should even be zero dwell time, cargoes moving as soon as they come and that is one thing, I will want them to have a critical look at Lekki.”