Apapa Gridlock: Sanity Returns with Commencement of Electronic Call-up

*Importers, clearing agents optimistic
*Apapa residents wants effort sustained

After years of untold hardship and deaths, sanity yesterday
returned to Apapa, a once-thriving port city brought to its knees
by protracted traffic gridlock. This followed the take off of the
electronic call-up system (ETO) introduced by the Nigerian Ports
Authority (NPA), According to Thisday report.

Apapa had in the past several years defied effort to solve its
traffic problem. The efforts, including a presidential task team,
were blighted by corruption.

However, normalcy returned to Apapa following the removal of
trucks that littered the port access roads – Apapa Oshodi Express
Way and Western Avenue leading to Ijora.

When THISDAY visited both ends of the port access roads
yesterday, officials of the Lagos State government and NPA
taskforce teams were seen with tow vehicles well positioned to
remove erring trucks.

This is the first time that electronic call-up would be deployed
to direct truck movement into ports in Lagos.

This automated process, known as Eto App, is expected to
permanently restore sanity within the Apapa port corridor by
removing the daily traffic congestion, if properly managed.

Meanwhile, port users, operators and Apapa residents were elated
by the development. They called on NPA to ensure that the effort
was sustained.

A resident, Mr. Chukwuma Vincent, said, “If you have been to
Apapa in the past you will know what I am talking about. Our
businesses went down, property lost value and people were
dying.

“We call on NPA to sustain this. I drove through to my house for
the first time in many years and I cried. I thought we had no
government in Nigeria again. This is worth celebrating and I can
only hope it lasts.”
Importers, clearing agents and truck owners also expressed optimism
as the electronic call-up system began yesterday. They called for a
functional holding bay by shipping companies for return of empty
containers.

NPA had late last year announced the launch of Eto, an
Electronic Truck call-up system designed for the management of
truck movement and access to and from the Lagos Ports Complex and
the Tin Can Island Ports, Apapa, Lagos. The authority said all
trucks doing business at the ports would be required to park at the
approved truck parks until they were called up into the port
through the Eto app. NPA explained that the Eto app will be
responsible for the scheduling, entry and exit of all trucks from
the ports with effect from February 27. It also stated that about
7,000 trucks had been certified fit for the digitalised call up
system, revealing that effective February 27, trucks must approach
the ports from a holding bay or truck parks with a bar code to
access the ports.

Stakeholders were optimistic that the electronic call-up system
would end corruption in the port access management system.

Vice Chairman, National Association of Road Transport Owners
(NARTO), Dry Cargo section, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa, said the
call-up system would end artificial bottlenecks on the port access
roads. However, National Vice President, Association of Nigerian
Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Kayode Farinto, said unless the
port access roads were fixed it might not yet be uhuru.

According to Inuwa, “I call on all stakeholders to cooperate and
allow it work. If that happens, then we will get good result.
Actually, if it takes off successfully, it will eradicate
corruption, no human contact and other artificial bottleneck. NARTO
wishes the authority a successful take-off.

“The motive is to take trucks off the roads, but NPA should
involve other garages where trucks are parked in order to
successfully decongest the roads.”

Farinto urged the NPA management to be steadfast in enforcing
the call-up system. He said the on-going construction of the
Oshodi-Apapa expressway must also be completed in good time because
there cannot be an effective call-up system without a good
road.

“The road should be put in adequate place because there is
nothing the call-up can achieve without a proper port access road,
” he said.

Farinto, a former chairman, Tin-Can Island chapter of ANLCA,
said shipping companies must be compelled to have functional
holding bay for return of empty containers.

According to him, “Shipping companies should put up a holding
bay for empty containers because without an efficient holding bay,
is there a way the policy can be achieved?

“NPA should also decisively take over the system and prevent the
security agencies from hijacking it. They must totally remove human
contact but how to achieve that I still don’t know because Terminal
Delivery Order (TDO) will still be generated manually.

“Also, there is nothing on ground to show that it will be
electronic. Human contact must be completely eliminated because
what is happening on the port access roads is an eyesore that is
giving stakeholders sleepless nights.”

*Importers, clearing agents optimistic
*Apapa residents wants effort sustained

After years of untold hardship and deaths, sanity yesterday
returned to Apapa, a once-thriving port city brought to its knees
by protracted traffic gridlock. This followed the take off of the
electronic call-up system (ETO) introduced by the Nigerian Ports
Authority (NPA), According to Thisday report.

Apapa had in the past several years defied effort to solve its
traffic problem. The efforts, including a presidential task team,
were blighted by corruption.

However, normalcy returned to Apapa following the removal of
trucks that littered the port access roads – Apapa Oshodi Express
Way and Western Avenue leading to Ijora.

When THISDAY visited both ends of the port access roads
yesterday, officials of the Lagos State government and NPA
taskforce teams were seen with tow vehicles well positioned to
remove erring trucks.

This is the first time that electronic call-up would be deployed
to direct truck movement into ports in Lagos.

This automated process, known as Eto App, is expected to
permanently restore sanity within the Apapa port corridor by
removing the daily traffic congestion, if properly managed.

Meanwhile, port users, operators and Apapa residents were elated
by the development. They called on NPA to ensure that the effort
was sustained.

A resident, Mr. Chukwuma Vincent, said, “If you have been to
Apapa in the past you will know what I am talking about. Our
businesses went down, property lost value and people were
dying.

“We call on NPA to sustain this. I drove through to my house for
the first time in many years and I cried. I thought we had no
government in Nigeria again. This is worth celebrating and I can
only hope it lasts.”
Importers, clearing agents and truck owners also expressed optimism
as the electronic call-up system began yesterday. They called for a
functional holding bay by shipping companies for return of empty
containers.

NPA had late last year announced the launch of Eto, an
Electronic Truck call-up system designed for the management of
truck movement and access to and from the Lagos Ports Complex and
the Tin Can Island Ports, Apapa, Lagos. The authority said all
trucks doing business at the ports would be required to park at the
approved truck parks until they were called up into the port
through the Eto app. NPA explained that the Eto app will be
responsible for the scheduling, entry and exit of all trucks from
the ports with effect from February 27. It also stated that about
7,000 trucks had been certified fit for the digitalised call up
system, revealing that effective February 27, trucks must approach
the ports from a holding bay or truck parks with a bar code to
access the ports.

Stakeholders were optimistic that the electronic call-up system
would end corruption in the port access management system.

Vice Chairman, National Association of Road Transport Owners
(NARTO), Dry Cargo section, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa, said the
call-up system would end artificial bottlenecks on the port access
roads. However, National Vice President, Association of Nigerian
Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Kayode Farinto, said unless the
port access roads were fixed it might not yet be uhuru.

According to Inuwa, “I call on all stakeholders to cooperate and
allow it work. If that happens, then we will get good result.
Actually, if it takes off successfully, it will eradicate
corruption, no human contact and other artificial bottleneck. NARTO
wishes the authority a successful take-off.

“The motive is to take trucks off the roads, but NPA should
involve other garages where trucks are parked in order to
successfully decongest the roads.”

Farinto urged the NPA management to be steadfast in enforcing
the call-up system. He said the on-going construction of the
Oshodi-Apapa expressway must also be completed in good time because
there cannot be an effective call-up system without a good
road.

“The road should be put in adequate place because there is
nothing the call-up can achieve without a proper port access road,
” he said.

Farinto, a former chairman, Tin-Can Island chapter of ANLCA,
said shipping companies must be compelled to have functional
holding bay for return of empty containers.

According to him, “Shipping companies should put up a holding
bay for empty containers because without an efficient holding bay,
is there a way the policy can be achieved?

“NPA should also decisively take over the system and prevent the
security agencies from hijacking it. They must totally remove human
contact but how to achieve that I still don’t know because Terminal
Delivery Order (TDO) will still be generated manually.

“Also, there is nothing on ground to show that it will be
electronic. Human contact must be completely eliminated because
what is happening on the port access roads is an eyesore that is
giving stakeholders sleepless nights.”