The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has decried the economic and security implications of the several abandoned Federal Government properties in Lagos.
Some of these properties include CBN properties; the old federal secretariat, the old National Assembly complex, Independence Building that used to house the Defence Ministry and former Federal Ministry of Commerce at Tinubu Square.
LCCI President, Babatunde Paul Ruwase, in a statement said: Beyond the economic waste that the situation represents, some of them serve as hideouts for hoodlums, criminals and miscreants, and therefore pose security risks to Lagos residents.
He urged the federal government to either return the properties to the Lagos State government, or give them out on lease to the private sector. He said there is an urgent need for the government to expedite the process of procurement of relevant title documents in order to facilitate their transfers for effective uses.
He lamented the non visibility of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) to the extent that it has no office in Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, saying the implication of this, is that private sector players have been shuttling between Lagos and Abuja for various approvals from the NIPC.
He said: “The interface of the NIPC is frequent and critical to achieving the objective of promoting investment and creating jobs. We urge the government to intervene in correcting this unusual situation. We need a Lagos NIPC office that will have the powers to substantially attend to all needs of investors.”
On Apapa traffic gridlock, Ruwase regretted that it has imposed and continued to impose unbearable cost on businesses, pointing out that the dis-functional state of the port and associated logistics for cargo clearing have become a nightmare.
He said the cost to business is horrendous and this includes high interest cost on borrowed funds used for import transaction, demurrage charges, insurance premium of vessels coming to Nigeria and high shipping cost.
He listed other drawback as low capacity utilisation due to problem of access to raw materials from the port as well as traffic congestion which has extended to the metropolis from the port. Paralysis of economic activities in Apapa axis and many more, what we are witnessing today is a reflection of the several years of neglect of our port and other infrastructure”, he added.
The LCCI boss stated that although they appreciate some of the steps taken by the government, decisive measures that are consistent and sustainable should be taken and implemented. He canvassed the need to restore order and sanity to the Lagos port,, including its access roads.
Ruwase regretted that Lagos ports which account for 70 per cent of Nigeria Custom’s revenue have to suffer the kind of deterioration and challenges that they are currently exposed to.
He pleaded that urgent measures be taken to restore the use of rail for the evacuation of cargo from the Lagos ports and called the attention of government to the unnecessary bureaucracy at the ports that have reduced the evacuation of containers by the Nigerian Railway Corporation to about 80 containers.
He called for the streamlining of port processes adding that pipelines should also be used to transport petroleum products from the ports to the depots around the country.
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