The Managing Director of Tin Can Island Container Terminal (TICT), Mr. Yehuda Kotik, on Friday advocated strong cooperation among major players in the service delivery chain at the seaports in Africa as a way of enhancing efficiency.
Kotik said this while presenting a paper on Ports and Infrastructure Developments in African Ports at the just concluded 12th Intermodal Africa 2014 exhibition and conference held in Lagos.
He identified the ports authority, terminal operators, trucks operators and others are critical stakeholders in the service delivery chain.
“The ports authority which is saddled with the responsibility of controlling ports gate and maintaining the ports must do its job while terminal operators must provide sufficient cargo handling equipment, internal roads and computerized gates,” Kotik said.
He also said that basic infrastructures, such as good road networks, effective rail system and the trucks used in getting the cargoes to their destination must be in good shape.
Kotik disclosed further that poor infrastructural development would affect effective service delivery while good infrastructure would improve the quality of service delivered at the port.
He also charged agencies in the ports such as customs, immigration and other relevant operatives to work round the clock to achieve quick turnaround time of vessels and delivery of cargoes.
The TICT boss said that service delivery has to be deliberately worked for as only “that the most sophisticated port with the most developed infrastructure” will achieve improved service delivery.
Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the conference, he said TICT is fully compliant with provisions of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code.
He said the terminal is highly secured such that there had not been any recorded case of theft at the terminal since 2006. He said TICT adopted ISPS to ensure that there were no losses as a result of pilfering within its operational base inside the port.
“Since the take-off of operation at the port, we have not recorded any theft; not even a pen has been declared stolen. Being ISPS- compliant, we have intelligence monitoring technology systems to ensure that cargoes are secured,” he said.
He disclosed that the company’s security integrity and infusion of technology in its work had sustained its annual throughput of over 400,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs) containers.
“We handle over 400,000 TEUs annually because we use high technology and dedication in offering our services. To ensure ease of movement in and out of the terminal, we maintain a six-lane entrance gates and these gates have technological devices for proper entrance handling,” Kotik said.
“Our wealth of experience and that of Bollore, one of our shareholders operating port terminals in 42 African countries, have helped us to maintain international standards,” he said.
Kotik said that there had been great improvement at Nigerian ports since 2006 when terminal handling operations were concession to private operators.
“Before the concession, vessels had to wait outside the port for over three weeks and operation took about a week but all of that has changed to the benefit of the Nigerian economy,” he stated.
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