Ports & Terminal Multiservices Ltd (PTML) has been decorated with the prestigious World Customs Organization (WCO) ‘Merit Award’ for showing “exceptional support and collaboration for customs towards the realization of its mandate”.
The award certificate, signed by the Secretary-General, World Customs Organization (WCO), Kunio Mikuriya was presented to PTML by the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Services, Alhaji Dikko Inde Abdullahi, on the occasion of International Customs Day Celebration, at the Nigerian Customs Service Headquarters, Wuse, Zone 3, Abuja.
While presenting the award certificate of merit to the General Manager of PTML, Mr. Tunde Keshinro, the Comptroller-General of Customs noted that in line with World Customs Organization “practice of rewarding excellence, Ports & Terminal Multiservices Ltd (PTML) has been selected as an Outstanding Terminal Operator to receive this year’s World Customs Organization (WCO) Award, for rendering exceptional services to the international customs community.”
The event, which played host to stakeholders involved in the management of international trade in Nigeria, is another enviable feat in the life of the growing fortunes of PTML.
PTML is one of the leading dedicated Ro/Ro terminals in West Africa. The company was registered in 2003 by Grimaldi Lines to respond to the initial invitation of the Federal Government to participate in the development of port facilities in Nigeria.
Acknowledging the necessity to expand terminal areas in Lagos, Grimaldi Lines, through its Special Purpose Vehicle – PTML – proposed the development of a completely new terminal in a totally neglected and underutilized area of Tin Can Island.
This turned out to be the first new terminal built in Lagos since the completion of the Tin Can Island Port Complex in 1977.
In February 2005 Grimaldi Lines through its subsidiary PTML signed an agreement with the Federal Government of Nigeria to Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) a new terminal in Lagos. Under the BOT agreement – the first of this kind signed by the Federal Government in the maritime sector – Grimaldi assumed the obligation to build the new infrastructure at its own cost, to manage it for 25 years, to pay royalties to the Nigerian Port Authority and to return it at the end of the concession to the Federal Government.
The first phase of the terminal – which entailed the construction of a new 220m berth, the paving of 220,000 sqm and the provision of all necessary infrastructure – was commissioned after only 16 months, in August 2006 by the then President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
The second phase – which included the construction of a second 200mt berth and the reclamation of additional 40,000 sqm of terminal area, was completed one year later.
Today PTML is Nigeria’s most important port for Ro/Ro freight traffic and a major container and project cargo port facility. As the sole terminal called in Lagos by Grimaldi Lines, PTML is the gateway to All Four Corners of the Atlantic with weekly sailings from North Europe and the Mediterranean, United States and Canada, South America and West Africa.
As a leading dedicated terminal operator with a talented workforce and state-of-the-art facilities specifically designed to serve the Ro/Ro Trade, PTML is uniquely positioned to offer the most efficient services to Nigerian importers and exporters.
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