By Godwin Oritse

FORMER Managing Director of the of the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Lines (NNSL), Mr Gerald Chidi, has warned that if adequate preparation are not made to expand the current port facilities, the current trend of cargo throughput could lead to an explosion of import.

Speaking to Vanguard in Lagos recently, Chidi stated that the current port facilities available in the various terminals are getting too small to accommodate the ever growing import rate.

Specifically, the former NNSL boss noted that if in the next five years, the facilities are not expanded to meet the current trend of the cargo throughput the possibility is that the influx could collapse the entire port system.

Although, he supported the move by Government to concession the port, the seasoned shipping expert however stated that development of some of the concessioned terminals leaves much to be desired.

He also stated if urgent steps are not taken to address the expected explosion, it could also worsen the already high cost of cargo in the port.

Gerald Chidi also called for the development of new ports particularly deep seaports adding that it could assist the increase in cargo throughput.

Although, he commended the government for concessioning the ports, he however noted that both the concessionaires and government are not looking at the future.

His words “If there was anything that the Obasanjo government did if there were no port concession by now, there would have been terrible congestion at the ports. “The freight rates would have been higher because there would have been the issue of suecharge on the every Nigerian bound vessel and cargo.

“We have not planned for the future, we have not planned even for the next ten years, in another five we do not improve on what we have now I mean the port facilities, we are going to run into a lot of problems

“We will run into problems because the importation of goods into the country in steadily increasing and if you do not plan accordingly because in this country, we do not plan, even when we talk about population, we conduct census we do not use the result to plan.