By Aisha Saleh
The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has said that the reluctance expressed by shippers to move their cargoes by barges travelling from Lagos to other ports in the Niger Delta region and Eastern parts of Nigeria is because of the lack of insurance cover for such trips.
The Managing Director of NIWA, George Moghalu, who disclosed this recently in Lagos, explained that shippers are reluctant because they are afraid of losing their cargoes in the event of the barges involving in an accident. He also noted that some shippers are complaining about the standard of barges used by some barge operators.
According to him, “these were issues raised by the importers themselves. They said they don’t want a situation whereby they would gamble with their goods after importing them all the way from China or Europe, and upon getting to Nigeria’s waterways the cargo sinks or gets accident.
“So we have reached an understanding with the Barge Operators Association of Nigeria that we want a reasonable insurance cover for every cargo that would go on the inland waterways and for the vessels themselves to be fully insured so that we can give protection to the importer.
“This is a prime project for us because we want to decongest our ports and ease pressure from the roads,” he added.
Moghalu pointed out that the agency is sensitizing boat passengers and boat riders on the use of life jackets and also on the need for obeying other safety regulations on waterways.
The NIWA boss further stressed that the Authority is also making it compulsory for all barge operators to get quality insurance cover that would cover both the barges and the cargoes they carry.
NIWA has consistently claimed that the huge economic opportunities that exist in the nation’s waterways can be maximized if there is better developed infrastructure and proper funding.
Moghalu reiterated this recently during the facility tour and commissioning of the newly acquired two patrol boats by the Minister of Transportation, Mu’azu Sambo in Port Harcourt, namely PB-Gusau and PB-Jalingo, as well as another 32-seater passenger ferry boat.
According to the NIWA DG, infrastructure and funding will make the waterways attractive and competitive to players. He also said that there was need for a regulatory framework aimed at actualizing this, which ultimately would take the cost of providing infrastructure on roads to water at relatively cheaper cost.
“As you may be aware, in less than a year ago, the authority commissioned more than 20 patrol boats and a tugboat, houseboat and water ambulance for distribution to various area offices.
“This is part of the authority’s vision to ensure that the nation’s inland waterways provide a truly safe, efficient, cost effective and alternative mode of transportation of goods and persons as well as become competitive and attractive.
“The vision of the authority is also to make Nigeria, the leader in inland waterways transportation, development and management in Africa, hence the need to ensure the development of infrastructural facilities for a national inland waterways network.
“The network will connect the creeks and the rivers with the economic centres using the river ports as nodal points for intermodal exchange,” he said.
Moghalu noted that consequently, NIWA has licensed several companies for transportation of cargo across the waterways, especially from Lagos and Onne Ports to the hinterlands and vice versa.
In his own words, “to achieve more of these, the authority is poised to continuously ensure the development of indigenous manpower and provide navigational aids, river training works, wreck surveys and removal, establishment of river gauges.
“Others are construction of jetties, capital and maintenance dredging, establishment of search and rescue stations, river craft certification, training of boat drivers and crew as well as continuous safety sensitization campaigns.
“As we speak, the sixth batch of training and certification of boat skippers by the authority is ongoing in Lagos. Even expatriates are participating in this training and certification.”
Responding, Sambo said that the ministry was set to frontally tackle the challenge of channel insecurity, which had slowed the growth of the Eastern Ports.