Bonded terminals were created with the sole purpose of decongesting Apapa port. Unfortunately, their locations which are far from the sea and rail lines, have defeated the purpose, ANNA OKON writes
Bonded terminals serve as storage facilities for containers and goods awaiting clearance and for the owners to pick them up.
Bonded terminals were badly needed in Lagos as the Apapa port bursts at the seams with containers, some of them abandoned there since 2010.
Before the concession, private individuals operated bonded terminals that were utilised by the Nigerian Ports Authority for storage of cargo and empty containers.
After the concession however, the terminals were no longer being utilised and the owners started losing money.
The bonded terminals were bought over by shipping lines and terminal operators when the NPA mandated all of them to have holding bays for their empty containers.
Owners of bonded terminals in Lagos include PTML and Sifax Group.
Others are; Sapid bonded terminal, Denca and Migfo.
Currently there are more than 10 bonded terminals in Lagos, most of them situated in the city, away from the waterways.
Apart from the unsuitability of citing bonded terminals in cities and residential areas, the current location of most of the bonded terminals in Lagos does not allow for smooth transfer of cargo and containers from the seaport.
This has resulted in constant queue of trucks along the port access roads, with operators waiting to either pick cargo or drop empty containers at the seaport terminals.
Stakeholders had said ideally, bonded terminals are supposed to be situated in places that would make movement of cargo and containers to and from the seaport terminals seamless.
A maritime stakeholder, Eddy Akwaeze, said, “The bonded terminal operated by PTML is supposed to be a model for all the shipping lines which have bonded terminals.
“Their bonded terminal is located right close to the sea and their goods come in and are conveyed by barges straight to the terminals.
“Since the idea is to decongest the port and reduce the gridlock along the port access road, people should be able to transport goods to and from the bonded terminals to the seaport terminals to be loaded into the ships directly.
“But that cannot happen with the current structure. Apart from the fact that they are very far from the coastal cities, they have no rail link. To take container there, you have to spend double what you spend taking it to the seaport terminal.
“That is why you see so many trucks queuing up to deliver to the seaport terminals.
In 2018, Lagos State issued a 21-day ultimatum to owners of bonded terminals in Ajegunle, Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state to vacate their current locations.
The government had argued at the time that the bonded terminals were located in residential areas thereby, conflicting with the state’s urban and regional planning Law.
It noted that the illegal citing of the terminals had disrupted the socio-economic lives of the people of Ajegunle and its environs, causing hardship to motorists.
In the wake of the road maintenance and the attendant worsening gridlock along the port access roads, the Nigerian Ports Authority suggested to freight forwarders and owners of cargoes that they should deploy the waterways, moving cargoes with the aid of barges.
Implementation of this policy hit a brickwall however, when it was discovered that many of the bonded terminals were not located close to the waterways.
“It would have been very difficult to obey the directive. The bonded terminals are located in the cities, not in coastal areas,” the President, International Freight Forwarders, Dr Sam Onyemelukwe said.
He wondered why there were lots of coastal settlements around Badagry but owners of bonded terminals neglected these settlements and instead, chose to cite their terminals in the dry land.
Another freight forwarder, Mr Sunny Nnebe, who is the former chairman of the Tin Can Island chapter of the IFFA, said the cost of moving containers in barges to bonded terminals was more than the cost of moving them into Apapa.
He said if a freight forwarder moved containers in barges to the bonded terminal situated in the cities, the same person would need to move it by road again to where the bonded terminals were since they were not located where the barge berthed.
The constant presence of trucks trying to move in and out of Apapa, the ongoing road rehabilitation around the area and shut down of the lilypond truck park around Ijora, have combined to cause crippling gridlock along the port access road.
The situation has also in turn caused congestion at the seaport terminals and increased waiting time for ships from 12 to 21 days.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Shippers’ Council, Hassan Bello has called on the government to invest in truck parks as well as multimodal transportation as a way of easing the challenge along the port access road.
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