By Godfrey Bivbere

LAGOS—The Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, has witnessed a sharp decline in its throughput of consignments shipped through the nation’s ports in the first quarter of 2016, when compared to last year.

This is even as the Authority is collaborating with other government agencies in its effort to drive exports of Nigerian goods, in a bid to utilise the 90 percent empty container shipment out of the country at present.

This is contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos, weekend, by the General Manager, Public Affairs Department of NPA, Capt. Iheanacho Ebubeogu.

The NPA boss, Mallam Habib Abdullahi, while x-raying the first quarter operational report of 2016, said the general level of operational activities at the ports in the period dropped significantly when compared with the same period in 2015.

According to the NPA boss, “the Commodity analysis revealed that though all cargo types declined during the period under review; however, containers and general cargo traffic contributed significantly to the overall drop in cargo throughput”.

He said in the first quarter of 2016, a total of 1,131 ocean-going vessels and crude oil tankers, with a total Gross Tonnage, GT of 59.4 million, called at Nigerian Ports.