Many Nigerian barge operators now survive on parking of sand for sand dredgers due to their inability to secure jobs at Nigeria’s busiest port, Apapa Port, The Nigerian Tribune has discovered. Reacting to plans by the APM Terminals to expand barge operations at the Finger Jetty of the Apapa Port by Q4 2026, national president of the Barge Operators Association of Nigeria (BOAN), Mr Bunmi Olumekun, lamented that no indigenous barge operator is involved in the move.

“Nobody has called us or notified us about any plans to expand barging operations at the Apapa Port.

“APM Terminals has been dealing with foreigners as regards barging operations at Apapa Port. They don’t deal with Nigerian barge operators.

“As I’m talking to you, there’s one Lebanese company that is doing barge operations at Apapa Port. They are doing a lot of barging of containers while indigenous operators have resorted to sand packing to survive,” he said.

“The only time APM Terminals call on indigenous barge operators is when the container volume is too high, and they cannot cope with the backlog. That’s when you will see them calling us. Are we ceremonial barge operators?”

He added: “We are responsible business people. We employ Nigerians and pay salaries every month. If it’s only when the APM Terminals is overfilled that the operator will call us, how are we going to pay salaries when nobody is calling us?

“The foreigners will come and go. It is we, the indigenous operators, that will remain here. These operations are our operations, but it’s been done by foreigners.

“APM Terminals should use indigenous barge operator as their vendor. Not bringing in their associates to come and be doing barge businesses that Nigerians can do.”

When asked how lack of jobs has affected indigenious operators, the BOAN president stated, “When we started BOAN, we were 82 indigenous companies that came together to form the association. As I am talking to you, we are not up to five, or about five, that are still operating.

“What are the four or five remaining barge companies doing to survive? We are packing sand to earn a living.

“The most annoying part of it is that these foreigners will come and rent our barges when they get jobs at Apapa port, and pay us. But for us to go and get jobs ourselves at Apapa port, it’s hell. You have to beg for months before you can be given one slot.

“So, for those months that your barge is doing nothing, many of us approach sand dredgers to lift sand in order to earn a living and stay afloat. Without this, I can tell you for free that we are all out of business.” (Nigerian Tribune)