Barely one week after President Muhammadu Buhari has reappointed Hadiza Bala-Usamn the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) based on her positive e reforms in her first five years, the Authority has announced the commencement of Eto, the Electronic Truck call-up system, designed for the management of truck movement and access to and from the Lagos Ports Complex and the Tin Can Island Ports, Apapa, Lagos.
In a statement signed by the Asst. General Manager Corporate & Strategic Communications, Ibrahim S. Nasiru, on behalf of the General Manager, NPA stressed that the gesture was coming as part of efforts aimed at finding a permanent solution to the problem of truck congestion around Apapa and its environs.
“All trucks doing business at the ports will be required to park at the approved truck parks until they are called up into the port through the Eto app.
“The Eto application will be responsible for the scheduling, entry and exit of all trucks into the ports with effect from 27th February 2021. “Therefore, all transporters, truck owners and truck drivers will be required to download the Eto App from Google play store or sign up at http://eto.ttp.com.ng before the commencement date to enable them register accordingly.
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“In addition to this, cargo owners should please note that empty containers can only be returned to the ports through the approved holding bays of shipping companies using the Eto Platform”, Ibrahim Nasiru stated.
The Authority maintained that:
*It is the responsibility of the shipping company to move empty containers from their holding bay to the Port.
*All cargo owners have to do is drop their empty containers at the holding bay of the shipping company. The shipping company will then make the necessary bookings on the Eto platform to return empty containers to the Port.
Consequently, the management of the NPA solicited the cooperation of transporters, truck drivers, cargo owners, clearing agents shipping companies and all port users in the implementation of the project, which will bring order and sanity to the ports access roads, adding that:
“Non-compliance to the use of Eto and its guidelines will result in denial of access into the Ports, impounding of trucks and withdrawal of registration/operating license.
Already, industry stakeholders’ have described the ETO resumption as timely and well received.
