…As NPA lauds Ports & Cargo on Commissioning of over 20m Euro equipment***
The SIFAX Group Managing Director, Adekunle Oyinloye on Monday emphasised the commitment of the Group to enviable service delivery and its strong belief in the nation’s future, as the Port & Cargo, a flagship of the Group took delivery of over 20m Euro brand new equipment.
“It is our belief and commitment, we are not here on a shuttle, we are here on a marathon. If you believe in the future, you won’t stop, the only thing we know how to do is this business, so our investment is a mark of our commitment to the industry”, Oyinloye stated, responding to questions on why such massive investment in cargo handling equipment when most of their competitors were holding tightly to their profits.
“Our own philosophy here in SIFAX Group is a belief that the future is better prepared for today; we believe that the hallmark of a terminal operation is the quality and quantity of equipments that you have.
“So for us, we want to be excellent in what we do. So, we are committing our time and resources to ensure there is excellence in output of what we do.
“And as I said, what you see today, that we are sitting down to commission today is about 20million Euro”, he said further, pointing at brand new items.
Speaking at the occasion, a highly impressed Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Hadiza Bala Usman said she was not only happy, she was also conscious of what the terminal could achieve with such humongous investment.
“The Nigerian Ports Authority has always supported and encouraged this kind of laudable investment in the port. For any port, for efficiency, you need not only good numbers of plants and equipment, but also productive ones, quality ones and with what we see today, we expect so much in the years ahead for Port and Cargo.
“So efficiency is all about the kind of equipments you have in the terminal”, Aisha Ibrahim who represented Hadiza stated further.
Also read: Ports & Cargo Consolidates enviable position with over $20m equipment
Germany’s Equipment manufacturer representative, Andrew Lich commended the nation’s initiative as demonstrated by SIFAX, assuring that Liebherr would stand by the Group, come rain or shine.
“I must tell you, this investment is very good for the future and will continue to enjoy strong partnership with Liebherr”, Andrew further said.
But the most impressed were probably the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), whose tedious task the new equipment would lighten but not take away.
Consequently, the members were happy as their President General, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju spoke their minds, stressing the need for Government to renew, at the appropriate time, the SIFAX Concession by as much 30 to 40 years.
“I will send the Managing Director a message, through the GM Operations, to whoever is going to renew their terminal Concession: that the Maritime Workers Association of Nigeria will like this terminal to continue for the next 30 or 40 years.
“Like I said earlier, it is a new dawn in the life of terminal operators in Nigeria.
“I think what we are seeing today shows that the Maritime Workers Association of Nigeria will continue to support our own indigenous terminal operators and what he (Dr. Taiwo Afolabi) has brought now shows that there is efficiency in privatising the Nigerian Seaports.
“It is because when your child is good you need to applaud him. I think SIFAX has started very well and we pray that he is going to end it well.
“We are saying so, as a result of the good innovations that he has introduced into terminal operation; and we would like other terminals too, to emulate the good gesture he has brought into his own terminal!”, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju further observed.
