The perennial traffic logjam in Apapa, home to two major international seaports in Nigeria is taking its toll on the maritime industry as operators bemoan the loss of over N1.3billion annually to the traffic nightmare.

Disclosing this to a select journalists in Lagos, the president of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Dr. Mohammed Yinusa said the traffic snarl is worrisome to road users and business operators as all efforts to solve the problem have not yielded positive result, adding that the concentration of tank farms in the area has worsened the situation due to high influx of petrol tankers in the area.

“The unending traffic gridlock in Apapa, home to the two major international seaports in Nigeria, Tin Can Island and Apapa ports is today a nightmare to both the business community and road users. The situation is compounded by the concentration of tank farms in the Apapa axis, thereby attracting large numbers of petrol tankers that jostle with container-bearing trucks on the road.

“The Presidency’s intervention and orders on July 20, 2018 to free up access road to the ports through the relocation of the articulated vehicles have so far failed to yield any positive result. Hundreds of trucks are still parked indiscriminately along the Oshodi-Apapa highway.

“The adverse economic implications on businesses cannot be over emphasised. For instance, the maritime operators quantified just two weeks traffic ago that the gridlock cost on the industry to be well over N1.3 billion annually which is an enormous loss,” the NECA boss stressed.

According to the NECA boss, the current approach of deploying security operatives in their large number to resolve the problem is not far reaching enough as the core problem has not been addressed by government, stressing that a lasting solution lies in a combination of interventions that are not only long term, but also commencement of their implementation most be in earnest.

“These prescribed interventions are planned relocation of the over concentrated petroleum products’ tank farms from the axis, opening up other ports outside Lagos, especially the Warri and Calabar Ports to business as alternatives to Lagos Ports fixing the bad roads and the adoption of the e-control approach to the Apapa traffic gridlock conceptualised by researchers from the Department of System Engineering the University of Lagos,” he posited. – The Nation

– Dec. 23, 2018 @ 6:47 GMT |