Tuesday, March 11Nigeria's Authoritative Maritime News Magazine
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NPA Management Sets Up Investigative Committee on TINCAN Fire Incidents

NPA Management Sets Up Investigative Committee on TINCAN Fire Incidents

Breaking News, Port News
The Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman has on behalf of the entire Management team of the organization expressed a heartfelt sympathy to the Executive Committee of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) over the recent fire incidents which occurred resulting in the loss of some official documents at its Tincan Island Port Complex (TCIP) locations. The MD stated that Management will always make sure that the security of lives and property which is one of its cardinal thrusts since inception is strictly adhered to.  According to her, further steps would be taken to look into ways of safeguarding and taking drastic measures towards preventing a recurrence of these unfortunate incidents across all port locations in the country. She...
Gelegele seaport development to begin as Obaseki signs MoU with China Harbour

Gelegele seaport development to begin as Obaseki signs MoU with China Harbour

Business, Port News
The Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC), for the development of the Gelegele Seaport and other transport infrastructure in the state. The landmark event which held in China today, will see China Harbour Engineering Company, the biggest infrastructure company in China, with a robust portfolio covering the broad infrastructure spectrum, lead the development of the seaport that will serve as the gateway for exporting manufactured goods from the Benin Industrial Park under construction and other manufacturing companies in the region. The MoU signing is the result of series of engagements between Governor Obaseki and the Chairman of China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC), Lin Yicho...
FOU Zone “A” Nets N5.9 billion in 2017…179 Arrested for Smuggling

FOU Zone “A” Nets N5.9 billion in 2017…179 Arrested for Smuggling

Breaking News, Business, Port News
The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone "A" Ikeja of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, made the highest revenue ever in its anti-smuggling operations by generating N5.9 billion in 2017, despite the harsh economic environment. This figure included the sum of N1.9 billion from duty payments and demand notices on general goods at seaports, airports and bordet stations in the South West of Nigeria. Most importers and customs agents often try to short- change the Federal Government through wrong classification of goods, transfer of value and other deliberate schemes to evade duty payment. During the year under review, the unit made a total of 1046 seizures and 179 suspects arrested for smuggling parboiled rice, frozen poultry products, vegetable oil, Indian hemp, arms and fake pharmace...
Nigeria Customs Service: How We Hit the Hit Trillion Naira Mark

Nigeria Customs Service: How We Hit the Hit Trillion Naira Mark

Breaking News, Business, Port News
The Nigeria Customs Service says it generated the sum of one trillion naira in revenue as against the target of N770, 573, 730, 490 due to measures put in place by the Col. Hammed Ali management. At a breakfast meeting with maritime journalists in Lagos, the National Public Relations Officer, DC Joseph Attah, stated that, although analysts have concluded that the revenue generated for 2017 was inferior to the figure for 2014, they were not conversant with the following economic indices. For instance, in 2014 experienced with 41 items removed from accessing forex. Rice, which raked in N56.8 bullion could not even contribute up to half a billion in 2017. Besides, the volume of imports declined considerably owing to government policy such that in 2014, the duties collected were N122...
Save our ports system from collapse, NAGAFF tells FG

Save our ports system from collapse, NAGAFF tells FG

Breaking News, Business, Port News
The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, NAGAFF, has called on the federal government to urgently address the issue of high port charges imposed on cargoes by shipping companies in order to save the port system from imminent collapse. It further stated that there were official hindrances deliberately put on the path of ports in the Eastern axis, thus making them unenviable and unattractive. These assertions were made in a memo sent to the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman. In the said letter, NAGAFF stated that the port access roads leading into the Apapa premier port had become a national eyesore. "It is now a national shame that the primary gateway access road to the nation's economy is in crisis and a disaster...
NPA rolls out ease of doing business model in Eastern ports

NPA rolls out ease of doing business model in Eastern ports

Maritime, Port News
In continuation of its ongoing interaction with the Port Communities, the Management of Nigerian Ports Authority have met with maritime stakeholders in Onne and Port Harcourt Areas, where they met with Operators with a view to identifying areas of needs in order for the Authority to engender greater operational efficiency at the Nation’s Seaports. The Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, who was ably represented by Executive Director, Marine and Operations, Dr Sokonte Huttin Davies stated that it is imperative for all Agencies at the Ports to contribute meaningfully  towards actualizing and facilitate Ease of Doing Business at the Ports, stressing that Management on its part would work towards creating an enabling environment for Stakeholders to operate optimally. The int...
NPA: Port reform without road reform

NPA: Port reform without road reform

Business, Port News
by Sylvanus Ekpo These are not the best of times for the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA. It is no longer news that the port access roads at Apapa and Tin Can Island ports are in a terrible state of disrepair. According to the Port Act of 1954 as amended, section 32 mandates the NPA to regulate traffic that is moving in and the one which is approaching but over the years, due to executive recklessness, the access roads were allowed to decay and today they have become an embarrassment to everybody, a congenital eyesore in the face of our port concession. Before the ports were concessioned in 2006 to private terminal operators by government, the NPA had a yearly throughput of 35million tons of cargo, a figure that could hardly be managed then. But, after the concession in March 2006, the...
Apapa Gridlock Conduit Pipe for Extortion By Taskforce – Survey

Apapa Gridlock Conduit Pipe for Extortion By Taskforce – Survey

Breaking News, Business, Law, Maritime, Port News
Backdropped against the decision by the Lagos State government to institute a joint security task force, it has become apparent that some selfish personnel are taking advantage of their new status to extort the people. As trailers and tankers jostle for space to inch towards the ports or tank farms, a syndicate operating within the "chaotic axis" is busy extorting money from the drivers to pay their way through the logjam. Investigations carried out by Shipping World reveal that drivers pay as much as #50,000 to #100,000 to be allowed to shunt the queue and head straight under escort into the port for business. This often takes place at night when Lagos is asleep. It is not clear if this syndicate has the backing of the authorities in Alausa but there are concerns that the unsav...
Apapa, Tin Can Ports Should be Shut … Hassan Bello.

Apapa, Tin Can Ports Should be Shut … Hassan Bello.

Port News
The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers Council , Hassan Bello Monday shocked maritime stakeholders when he called on the Federal Government to shut down the Apapa and Tin Can Ports. Bello said both ports have outlived their usefulness and no amount of artificial face lift would return them to their past glory. The Shippers Council helmsman who was contributing to a paper "Ensuring Safe and Secure Waterways Transportation" delivered by Rear Admiral AA Oshinowo at activities to commemorate the World Maritime Day in Lagos Monday said, " if the truth must be told, we all must agree here that these pioneer ports have outlived their usefulness and have been stretched beyond limits. No infrastructural face lift can return them to their peak .What ever we do to them would amount to a was...
INTELS in fresh crises with OGFZA

INTELS in fresh crises with OGFZA

Business, Law, Port News
Oil and gas logistics giant and port concessionaire, INTELS Nigeria Limited (INL), is in fresh trouble as the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA) has ordered a comprehensive audit of a decade of its operations (2006-2016).The development came as INTELS, a company largely owned by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, began to feel relief from a similar rift with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). OGFZA, in a letter to the Managing Director of INTELS, Simone Volpi, obtained by Our Correspondent yesterday, said it had appointed a team of auditors to carry out the compliance audit of the embattled firm, a concessionaire of NPA, over alleged “serial violation” of the laws and regulations governing operations in the free zone. The Managing Director of OGFZA, Umana Okon Umana, said t...