Apapa Berthing Space Crisis: Barge Operators Seeks Oyetola’s Urgent Intervention

BY KESIENNA SHEPHERDS

Indigenous barge operators in Nigeria have raised a loud alarm over what they describe as a systematic and deliberate plot to push them out of business at the Apapa Port, fingering terminal giant APM Terminals (APMT) as the chief architect of their woes and accusing the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council of looking the other way while the crisis deepens.
Speaking with mounting frustration, the National President of the Barge Operators Association of Nigeria (BOAN), Hon. Olubunmi Olumekun, alleged that APMT has effectively cornered barge operations at the Apapa Port by denying indigenous operators access to berthing windows, acquiring GMT Shipping as a preferred barge partner, and now manoeuvring to extend its grip to another terminal, GDNL Terminal.
“The APMT is taking over the barge operations and not allowing local content to thrive. They are trying to determine the price by bringing their barges and take over every aspect of business at the port. This would affect the common man on the streets and the price of goods at the market.”
Olumekun explained that having been shut out of APMT’s berth, operators had turned to Eko Support Terminal as an alternative, dropping containers there and trucking them down to APMT. But that lifeline, he alleged, has now been severed.
“They went and have a kangaroo agreement with Eko Support Terminal. Normally, they have refused to give us a window at the berth for our barges to berth and discharge and pick containers, so we went to Eko Support Terminal who permits us to drop containers at their yard and truck it down to APMT, but now APMT have gone ahead to truncate that agreement,” he said.
The BOAN President further alleged that APMT acquired GMT Shipping, a barge operating company, and is exclusively using GMT barges at its berths, effectively locking out all other indigenous operators.
“They have gone ahead to acquire GMT Shipping, a company that operates barges, as their partners, so they are now using GMT barges only to load at their berths. Now Eko Support have danced to the tune of APMT and they are pushing us out,” Olumekun said.
Beyond exclusion from berths, Olumekun said a crippling escalation in terminal handling charges has made barge haulage economically unviable. According to him, charges have jumped from N50,000 to nearly N300,000, an increase of approximately 300 percent, rendering operators unable to compete with road transportation.
“The road transportation is competing with us. If you are transporting cargo from Apapa Port to Oshodi, it’s around N250,000 for a 40-foot container, but for barges now, due to numerous costs from terminal charges, bunker, crew, and labour at the destination jetty, we are looking at between N700,000 to N800,000. Looking at this, how can we compete? How are we going to decongest the road with this kind of arrangement?” he asked.
Olumekun also raised concerns about the common user finger jetty in Apapa, which he noted was not concessioned to either APMT or Eko Support Terminal but has effectively been taken over by GMT Shipping.
“The common user finger jetty in Apapa which was reserved by the Federal Government was not concessioned, neither to APMT nor Eko Support, and we as barge operators have written to government several times that we cannot allow foreigners to start chasing us out of the finger jetty and be making money from it,” he said, adding that BOAN members possess the necessary equipment and cranes to operate the jetty themselves should access be granted.
Invoking international port operations standards, the BOAN President noted that maritime law mandates that every terminal must leave 50 metres available for emergency evacuation or barge operations, a provision he said is being flagrantly violated.
“According to international laws on port operations, 50 metres is designed for emergency evacuation. Every terminal must leave 50 metres for emergency operations or barge operations, and even the concession agreement the terminal operators signed with the Federal Government, the clause is stated there. APMT is the only place where this anomaly is taking place,” Olumekun stated.
Framing the matter in broader economic and policy terms, Olumekun accused APMT and the terminal operators of directly sabotaging President Bola Tinubu’s local content and blue economy agenda.
“The terminal operators are killing the efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the development of indigenous capacity in the maritime and blue economy sector,” he charged, while also calling on the Federal Government to consider terminating APMT’s concession agreement.
“It is high time the Federal Government terminate the concession agreement. We are writing to the Senate and the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, because we don’t think he is aware,” he said.
The Director of Enforcement and Operations for BOAN, Nura Wagani, corroborated the damaging impact of the charge hike, stressing that it was imposed without consultation with barge operators.
“The increase in terminal handling charges was carried out without consulting us. If a truck is loading one container for N280,000 and a barge is loading for N580,000, you would prefer to go for the cheaper one. The increment is going to affect the whole nation because anyone taking delivery by barge would add it to the cost of selling their commodities for the common man.”
Wagani also drew a sharp contrast between the situation at Apapa and that at Tin Can Island Port, noting that the crisis is largely localised to APMT’s operations.
“We as barge operators have been thrown out of business, nobody is patronising us because of these exorbitant rates. This is only happening in Apapa Port. If you go to the Tin Can Island Port, the cost is not the same, Tin Can Island is far cheaper than Apapa where APMT is flexing muscles and trying to take over our barging operation,” he said.