The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said, it is dissatisfied with the operations of the barge operators operating on the nation’s inland waterways
The authority’s managing director, Mohammed Bello-Koko, said NPA will be introducing new requirements for the shipping service providers, saying those who fail to meet the new requirements may have their licences revoked.
Bello-Koko said the authority had noticed some of the barges sinking, containers falling off at berth, some bruising vessels discharging at berth; a development he said was not acceptable.
He said: “most of the barges do not have communication systems. They are not branded; whenever they commit an offence, we don’t even know who is who. Most of the pilots don’t even care; they operate it as if they are driving a vehicle.
“Sometimes, you wake up in the morning and you’ll be hearing a vessel horning. Every time they are horning, sometimes they are telling someone to get off the channel. In fact, we have witnessed cases where a vessel anchored in the middle of the channel because of a barge blocking the channel and that has to stop or we start seizing those non-complaint barges.”
He further disclosed that, what the organisation wants to do was to set new standards to ensure quality services among the operators as he disclosed further that barges that were not safe still operate in the system.“We are going to be very firm as regards this,” he said.