Acting Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mr Mohammed Bello-Koko, has reiterates support for the electronic call-up system, also called ‘Eto’, the policy deployed to check congestion at the ports.
Speaking in Lagos on Sunday, Bello-Koko said:“I have paid a visit to the main truck park itself which is located at the Lilly Pond Terminal, Ijora to see what is happening. I went round and I went into the ports. The idea was for me to have first-hand understanding on what the problem is.
“I met with Truck Transit Park (TTP), the firm that deployed ‘Eto’ system platform on behalf of the NPA, and we analysed what has been happening from February to May.
“We observed lapses one of which was the non-deployment of the electronic call up system – the Information Technology IT system – that should have been in place in some locations in the satellite truck parks.
“We also looked at the non-deployment of physical infrastructure such as the bollards, the automated gates, and we gave them ultimatum to deploy the infrastructure or lose the contracts.
“The essence of ‘Eto’ was actually to streamline the movement of cargo in and out of the ports, reduce human interference, and speed up the process of cargo delivery.
“As long as there is human interference, there would be delays, there would be extortion and so on. What we need to do is to work on the human interference, stealing of Eto tickets and so on.
“Very often, we have situations where a trucker is along the route and he has his Eto ticket and at the next bus stop, a security agent stops him to say let me see your Eto ticket and the Eto ticket number is 123456.
“The driver may probably be so many kilometres away; that number could be given to someone who could enter a certain building around Apapa and, probably in 15 to 20 minutes, get a plate number printed which could be used to get access into the port.
“Shortly after, the real owner of the number now shows up and his ticket has been used and that is why we have now requested that TTP should change this to QR code; when you have a QR code, we will be able to scan it and you go through”
