By Andrew Utulu
The Truck Transit Parks Limited (TTP), operators of the ETO platform, has unveiled plans to introduce a series of new technologies to further facilitate cargo movement from the seaports in 2026.
Managing Director, TTP, Jama Onwubuariri who disclosed this during a roundtable meeting with the Shipping Correspondents Association of Nigeria (SCAN) in Lagos, said the company has also facilitated the movement of over 900,000 trucks into the Nigerian ports this year.
According to him, the company has deployed technologies to help shippers, transporters, port operators, terminal operators, and the FMCG companies, to improve the quality of their movement, management of their facilities, ensuring that goods, vehicles, and people move quickly and efficiently.
“And that is what we have done for the past five years,” he said.
Welcoming the TTP delegation to the SCAN Press Centre in Lagos, the President of SCAN, Mr. Moses Ebosele, said the facility remains open and accessible to all stakeholders.
Mr Ebosele urged the delegation—and the wider maritime and transport community—to take full advantage of the press centre, noting that “our doors remain open to all stakeholders within and outside Lagos.”
On the plans for next year (2026), Mr Onwubuariri said: “We are stepping up the system to ensure that new technologies are deployed to reduce human interference, currently we are investing in an Electronics Tagging System. We have also designed what is called an e-column Interchange Transaction Log and the YAD traffic management solution, among others to eliminate delays.”
He said these new technologies are aimed at seamless movement of trucks, guaranteeing cargo for the truckers and enhancing security.
Giving a brief insight into how the Electronic Tagging System works, he said: “The truck has a tag which reads off cameras and e-tag readers that are at the port gate. The driver comes, waits, the barrier opens because his tag is read against the tag reader, and he goes in. So that identity is maintained for that truck all through the life of that truck in maritime business. And you can use that Electronic Tagging System to enter multiple facilities.”
Onwubuariri said the company is also liaising with relevant agencies to integrate ETO into the single window platform which the Federal Government plans to float next year.
However, he disclosed that plans are in the pipeline to extend ETO to other states of the federation.
“On the infrastructure side, we are currently expanding to other states in Nigeria such as, Cross-River, Abia, Kaduna, Bauchi and Yobe states. These are states we are currently in talks with. We will deploy ETO both as a traffic management and also as an infrastructure management solution to them. So, by next year more development will unfold,” he stated.
Speaking on the expiration of its license, Onwubuariri, said he is optimistic that the license would be renewed considering the significant impact that ETO has made over the years. He assured that more technologies are coming into play in the next phase of operations.
He said: “Everything that needs to be done on our part for the license renewal has been done, because we have what they call the performance indicators. We have presented our request for a new license to be submitted. The feedback we get is that it’s under review, so it’s not in our hands. Our job is to make sure that those things in our contract are done, and we’ve done that. And then the requests that our contract requires us to do are also done. So the next step is with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Recounting the gains of ETO over the years, he said, “In 2019, there was a report by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce which says that Nigeria is losing $1.7 billion annually due to port congestion. The money is being lost to time factor, delay in export and import of goods and services.”
