Nigerian Ports Authority to introduce new requirements for barge operators

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said it will introduce new requirements for shipping service providers, saying those who fail to meet the new requirements may have their licenses revoked as it is dissatisfied with the operations of the barge operators operating on the nation’s inland waterways.

In an interactive session with journalists, the authority’s managing director, Mohammed Bello-Koko, said NPA had noticed some of the barges sinking, containers falling off at berth, some bruising vessels discharging at berth; a development he said was not acceptable.

He said: “most of the barges do not have communication systems. They are not branded; whenever they commit an offence, we don’t even know who is who. Most of the pilots don’t even care; they operate it as if they are driving a vehicle.

“Sometimes, you wake up in the morning and you’ll be hearing a vessel horning. Every time they are horning, sometimes they are telling someone to get off the channel. In fact, we have witnessed cases where a vessel anchored in the middle of the channel because of a barge blocking the channel and that has to stop or we start seizing those non-complaint barges.”

He further disclosed that the organistion wants to set new standards to ensure quality services among the operators as he added that barges that were not safe still operate in the system.

“We are going to be very firm as regards this. In few weeks to come, we’ll not allow some of those barges to work. Some weeks ago, a barge sneaked out to work and it bruised a vessel that was offloading liquid cargo…we would delist those that we feel do not meet our requirements, those that meet our requirements, we would give them additional requirements to meet,” he said.

Leadership