Economy
THE Barge Operators Association of Nigeria (BOAN) has urged the National Assembly to pass a law to ensure an appreciable number of containers are transported by barges in the country.
The President of BOAN, Dr Bunmi Olumekun, made the call at the conference of Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Lagos on Friday.
According to Olumekun, majority of containers are transported by trucks on roads and this causes more harm than good.
“Government needs to put this into consideration and ensure that some percentage of goods should not be moved by road but by water. That will strengthen the industry and open more routes for barge operators.
“Presently, our barges move from Lagos to Warri, also from Lagos to Port Harcourt to Calabar, Ondo State to Ijebu. This ensures we connect each other and decongest the ports, and the roads will last longer,” he said.
The BOAN president pointed out that government had been developing the railway, but urged that 20 per cent of the spending on railway be channeled to barge operations or even water transport to develop that sector.
“We have not tapped this sector and if this plea is heeded, we will see that Nigeria will transform by the time government concentrates on maritime industry as a whole.
“We appreciate the maritime bank that government was pushing for, it will be an advantage to us because it will help us to get loans on single digit interest rate instead of double.
“This is because we are competing with foreigners that come with even zero interest from their country. That is why the whole area from Mile 2 to Badagry and Agbara has been bought by them because they have access to funds,” he said.
He said the association had achieved a lot but needed encouragement from government because the business was capital intensive, as the major challenge they had was finance.
He said the challenges encountered on the waterways were caused by wrecks.
“People concluded that our barges are substandard. We cannot fold our hands and get substandard barges because of the risk involved.
“When the wrecks are under the water, there is no way we will know and the barge plate hitting the wreck will damage the barge,” he said.
Olumekun said the association had moved over three million Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) within three years; both export, import and empty, in and out of Apapa.
He added that there were about 5,000 employees working directly and indirectly with BOAN. (NAN)
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Tags: Barge Operators Association of Nigeria Bunmi Olumekun MARAN
