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From Uche Usim, Abuja
The Onitsha river port, under the management of Universal Elysium Consortium Limited, its concessionaire, has attained an important milestone as commercial barges have begun calling at the facility. This comes a year after the concessionaire took over the port. The Managing Director, Dr. George Nwangwu, who made the disclosure in a statement on Friday, said the barge was fully handled by the crew of the port.
“The barge that arrived at Onitsha port is a consignment of tiles from Ajaokuta to Onitsha. It is expected that this is going to be a weekly occurrence going forward as the consignees of the goods would now move 600 tons of tiles to Onitsha every week and take 600 tons of clay back to Ajaokuta. The port formally received its first barge on the 16th of August 2023”, he said. The Managing Director applauded to the operations team at the port which consists of the supervisors, dockers, crane operators, and forklift operators who really put in immense effort to ensure the operation was seamless and successful.
According to him, the goal of the company is to continue to strive to make Onitsha port great despite all the challenges. In his remarks, the General Manager of Onitsha River Port, Wannes De Wit, expressed happiness on reaching the milestone. According to him, the development has taken more than 70 trucks off the busy roads, adding that it was only possible and achievable because of the higher water level in the River Niger during the rainy season. According to the General Manager, this only happens for six months in a year due to the low water levels in the River Niger during the dry season.
He however pleaded with the Federal Government to dredge the river channel so that goods can be moved through the river channel all year round as this would have immense benefits to the country. Stakeholders describe the Onitsha port as very vital in tackling Lagos port congestion and growing the economy of the eastern part of the country and adjacent regions.
