Bala Usman  disclosed this  while giving an update about the electronic call -up, Eto, during a virtual meeting with Maritime Journalists on Monday.

According to her the new arrangement to remove gridlocks on Lagos ports access roads also demands that shipping lines must have holding Bays for empty containers being returned to the ports.

She said that non-compliance with the policy on holding bays will henceforth be a factor in the revalidation of the annual license for shipping lines operating in the country.

” NPA has made it very clear that part of the annual registration due for shipping liners is tied to the utilisation of empty containers for consignee’s to drop containers with them. All empty containers must be dropped at the shipping companies holding bays and at that point importers and agents will access their deposits”,she said.

On the electronic call-up, Usman said it would be transparently done on first-come-first -serve basis.

” Truckers are expected to download the E App to sign up. We have also requested for the operators to have a dashboard in front of port locations where movement of trucks would be displayed for truckers to see their schedule for the day”, she said.

Speaking on port operations she said that the nation witnessed a drop in cargo throughput in 2020.

According to her a total of 3972 vessels called at Nigerian Ports in 2020, when compared to 4251 vessels in 2019.

” In 2019, we had a total of 4251, vessels that called into our ports, according to the ship traffic data. In 2020, we had 3972. So we had a drop. In terms of cargo throughput, we had 78.4 million metric tonnes in 2020, while in 2019 the nation recorded 80.2 million metric tonnes in 2019″, she noted.

The NPA boss expressed optimism on improved shipping in the country with the expected delivery on approved deep seaports in different locations, citing Onne, Lekki in Lagos, Ibom in Akwa Ibom, among others.