‘Terminal records growth in containerised, cargo haulage’

Connect Maritime Services Limited has said the company is recording continued growth in its Ikorodu Lighter Terminal containerised, bulk cargo haulage business.

This is coming barely four months into the formal commencement of movement of containers from the Apapa port complex by sea to the terminal in barges for collection by trailers to other parts of the country.

Managing Director and Chief Executive, Connect Maritime Services Limited, Edeme Kelikume, said the movement of containers started in slow pace of tens and hundreds of containers moved in and out of the port, which has grown, to an estimated 2000 containers is an interventionist approach aimed at decongesting the traffic menace within Apapa and its environs.

It would be recalled as part of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) efforts to decongest the traffic gridlock on Apapa port axis, Managing Director, NPA, Hadiza Bala-Usman in February this year flagged off the first export consignment of manganese, a solid mineral resource from the Ikorodu lighter terminal to Apapa port.

Kelikume said the movement of containers in barges out of the Apapa port complex to the Ikorodu terminal for collection by the owners and the haulage of containers to Apapa port for export to other parts of the country by CMSL has since resulted in the movement of almost 2,000 truck equivalents of containers and other bulk cargos from Apapa port access road.

Among the clientele making use of the services include the blue chip companies, multinationals and corporate giants by FMCG’s trading and manufacturing companies moving goods comprising mainly of solid minerals and agro commodity exports.

He said embracing intermodal logistic solutions such as the barge services moving cargo to and from Apapa to NPA Ikorodu Lighter Terminal would significantly contribute to solving part of the chaotic traffic situation that is currently been experienced in Lagos state in the past months and years.

‘’Several times, ‘cosmetic’ attempts have been made to clear the Apapa traffic, but as soon as the media attention dies down, the gridlock creeps back.

It is estimated that the economy loses about N20 billion daily due to the gridlock, which is the country’s premier port’’ Kelikume said.