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By Ebube Egbufor
A businessman and maritime expert, Mr. Chinedu Ikenga, has urged the Federal Government to improve on the road network in Nigeria especially roads in the south and eastern parts of the country.
Ikenga, who is the general manager (Operations), Prestige Associates Limited, Eleme, Rivers State noted that the road leading to Onne Port is in a very sorry state and is impeding the smooth running of business in that area.
During a recent meeting with Maritime reporters in his office, he said that before now a container going from Onne Port to Aba in Abia State would not take more than one hour, but now it takes up to five hours as it has to go through Owerri in Imo State before reaching its final destination.
This according to him consumes both time and money as the truck drivers charge exorbitantly because of the increase in fuel and cost of maintenance of their trucks.
Enjoining the federal government to consider the plight of Nigerians who make use of the East West road, Ikenga said containers always fall on the Eleme/ Onne axis of the road bringing untold losses to the owners.
“Government should come to our aid. Last week, one of my containers fell on the way and for these containers that fall, duty has been paid, freight charged and at the end of the day, the container falls on the way and if it is a container of breakables, all the efforts of the importer would have been wasted on the way. So I plead with the government to help and reduce the stress and sufferings of the maritime operators”, he said.
He also identified the constant increase in exchange rate as another major challenge facing the industry, stressing, “high exchange rate is affecting the volume of containers we have here in the Eastern ports for customers who before now used to import about 20 containers are struggling to import ten now and it’s not helping the business”.
Noting that cost of running a terminal is very costly nowadays, Ikenga decried the erratic supply of electricity in the country which prompts most businessmen to resort to using generators as alternative source of power.
Apart from using generators to do most of their work, the businessman also lamented the high cost of maintenance of equipment as well as prices of parts of the equipment.
He also pointed out that moving containers from the seaport to the terminal has become a Herculean task. “Before now, one escort officer can do about 20 containers or more in a day but now, it is five containers to one escort officer which means that we need more officers to escort containers from this place.
“We have made presentations concerning these escort officers but government have not done much rather they keep promising that they would look into it. I believe that if all these things are checkmated, business will also improve,” he added.
Highlight of the meeting was the presentation of an award, the ‘BUMWAN Maritime Pillar Award’ by the members of the Business and Maritime Writers’ Association of Nigeria (BUMWAN) in recognition of his commitment and efficient service delivery in the maritime industry.
Receiving the award, Mr. Ikenga appreciated the gesture and promised to do more while requesting for synergy with the press to take the maritime industry to greater heights.
