Nigerian Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators has charged the management of Nigerian Ports Authority to overhaul its personnel involved in the e-call up system recently introduced to address traffic congestion along the Lagos port corridors.
In a chat with Financial Street over the weekend, the National President of NAFFAC, Mr. Yinka Bakare, warned that the e-call up system, codenamed Eto, might be truncated by officials of the port authority involved in the process, stressing that the progress recorded so far might be sabotaged by few dubious NPA personnel.
He reiterated that the personnel of NPA, who were benefitting from the gridlock, might frustrate the progress of the e-call up system in the future.
Bakare, who lauded innovations by management of NPA on the initiative, however, cautioned that the system might encounter some sabotage by even government officials .
He urged NPA to outsource Eto to a competent organisation that could drive the project successfully without fear of compromise and sabotage.
According to him, the process of accessing the Eto app was smoothly operated by some stakeholders since inception, even as he maintained that some insiders from the government agencies were unhappy with the innovation because some of them were feeding fat from the gridlock.
He said, “Honestly speaking, the e-call up system is a perfect idea, but you cannot build that same system around someone who used to get N50,000 or N100,000 from the system everyday before the system changes. If the system changes and the same person(s) are still involved in the process, then you should expect some level of frustration because those people will scuttle the system.
“Technically speaking, I think there should be a system overhaul by management of NPA. It should bring in people that are trained specifically for that project to succeed and not those who are in the system.”
Bakare stressed the need for the sustainability of the free flow of vehicles along the port corridors, adding that the progress recorded so far must be encouraged.
