By Innocent Chukwu
The Nigerian Ports Authority’s(NPA) Executive Director (ED) Marine and Operations, Mr Olalekan Badmus has paid his maiden official working visit to the Tincan Island Port, Apapa Lagos. The Executive Director M&O who visited the port earlier in the week, also took the time to visit all the Terminal Operators located within the port, and inspected their terminals and facilities. The ED was conducted round the port by the Tincan Island Port Manager, Mr Sylvester Ogede.
At the end of the inspection tour of the Terminal Operators’ facilities, Mr Badmus returned to the Port’s Administrative Building where he had a brief interaction with NPA work force attached to the Tincan Port. During the interaction he admonished the staff to do all within their strength at all times, in the course of their duties, to ensure that they give all the Terminal Operators the needed support they require for their smooth and efficient operations.
At the forum, Mr Badmus reminded the NPA staff Tincan Island Port that the smooth operations and efficiency of the Terminal Operators would result in the latter’s business boom which would rub off positively on the revenue generation of the NPA. He stressed that the more profit Terminal Operators accrued, the higher would be the revenue accruable to the Authority, “the more money they (Terminal Operators) get, the more revenue for NPA”, Badmus said.
The Executive Director Marine and Operations further stated that a “Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)” for all operations must be provided for the Terminal Operators. He noted that the SOP was necessary to measure the activities of the Terminal Operators. The ED also directed the Safety Department of the Tincan Island Port to engage in unscheduled visits to the terminals so as to determine their level of compliance with the SOP, and to apply appropriate sanctions to any Terminal Operator found to have violated the SOP standard.
The Tincan Port Manager, Ogede, had earlier welcomed the visiting ED whereupon he briefed him on the historical elements of the port that make it unique, as well as the functional areas of the port in the nation’s economy. Ogede also briefed the ED on the recent activities in nation’s second biggest seaport.
