DEEPER CHANNELS: NPA Receives WAFMAX Vessel At Onne Port

About five months after she made a trial call, a West Africa Max (WAFMAX) vessel is set to call at Onne port next week, in what the management of Nigerian Ports Authourity described as an affirmation of the deepening of the channel in the Bonny Pilotage District.

Disclosing this to newsmen in Lagos yesterday, managing director of NPA; Malam Habib Abdulahi stated that the coming of  the WAFMAX ship to Onne port is attributable to the successful dredging of the channel.

He said that the ship would be sailing in with the maximum 4,500 containers, which he described as the biggest of such in West Africa so far.

“We have had a test run last year; it came into Onne port successfully last December”.

“All these are testimonies to the dredging that has been going on in Lagos and Bonny, the draft of the channels have increased when compared to what obtained before the NPA entered into joint venture agreement with Lagos Channel Management and Bonny Channel Management”. The duo are the two dredging companies that currently carry out capital and maintenance dredging of approaches to the two pilotage districts in Nigeria.

Buttressing his point, he said that Bonny Access Chanel has deepened from 12.5metres in 2005 to about 15 metres as at September 2013. He also added that the depth  of the channel from Bonny to Onne  junction and from Onne junction to the Federal Ocean Terminal  has increased from 7 metres in 2005 to 11.7 and 11.3metres respectively as at September 2013.

He assured that the coming to Onne port of the WAFMAX vessel will show in practical terms that bigger ships can now coming to Nigerian ports.

“The essence of this is that the bigger the ship, the bigger the cargo and the bigger the revenue to be generated”, he stated, even as he confirmed that already there is an improvement in the revenue generated by the organisation.

“As at last year, we have increased our revenue by about five to seven percent”. Of course, this is just the beginning, because with the coming of these bigger vessels, our revenue will become higher than what we expect “.  
 
According to him, one other important thing is that the coming of these vessels will   automatically make Nigerian ports the hub in West Africa.

He also dispelled the insinuation that cargoes meant for Nigeria are being diverted to other ports. He however confirmed that Nigeria is giving serious attention to the deepsea port in different parts of the country.
 

Shipping Position Daily recalls that, another WAFMAX vessel Mearsk Conakry had   called at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC)about three years ago.
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