STAKEHOLDERS RAISED CONCERN OVER INSECURITY IN NIGERIA TRANSPORTATION SECTOR

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s transportation industry have raised concerns over the growing security challenges in the sector while calling for urgent intervention to save it from collapse.

Speaking at the on-going 4th edition of the National Transport Summit of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria, CIOTA, chairman of the event Chief Julius Adelusi Adeluyi, said that said the transportation modes in  Nigeria has been altered following the invasion of the transport space by criminals across the country.

He said the aim of the summit was to address the issues of transportation modes and terminals as vectors of threats to safety and security,  profiles of transport administration in Nigeria and their effectiveness for prevention, monitoring, checks and control of threats as well as cyber security of transportation infrastructure and organizations vulnerable to damage, hacking and access to information technologies and their associated logistic networks.

Speaking during a panel session, Emmanuel Jime, executive secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), said that shippers are paying high freight on goods coming to Nigerian Ports due to poor security rating of Nigeria.

According to him, cargoes that are supposed to go to the Eastern ports in the Calabar and Port Harcourt are being diverted to Lagos ports due to the high rate of insecurity in the Niger-Delta waters.

This situation, according to him, leads to high freight differential between the Lagos Ports and Eastern ports as shipping firms slam war risk insurance premium on the cargoes.

Bashir Jamoh, the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), said the essence of the NIMASA’s investment in the Deep Blue Project was to improve security in Nigeria’s waters and to reduce the payment of war risk insurance by ships coming to Nigerian Ports.

SOURCE: Vanguard