Onitsha River Port Receives First Commercial Barges

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

One year after taking over the management of Onitsha River Port, the concessionaires of the port, Universal Elysium Consortium Limited, reached an important milestone with formal receipt of the its first barges at the facility recently.
The epoch-making event happened on the August 16, 2023.

In a statement, the Managing Director of Universal Elysium Consortium Limited,
Dr. George Nwangwu, was quoted as stating that the barges were fully handled by the crew of Onitsha River Port.
The barges, which arrived Onitsha Port was a consignment of tiles from Ajaokuta to Onitsha.

It was expected that the arrival of the first barges would herald a weekly occurrence, going forward as there would now be a movement of 600 tons of tiles to Onitsha every week and 600 tons of clay back to Ajaokuta.
He expressed happiness on reaching the important milestone.
According to him, the activity helped take more than 70 trucks off the busy roads, adding that this was only possible and achievable because of the higher water level in the River Niger during the rainy season.

This, he noted, only happens for six months in a year due to the low water levels in the Rive Niger during the dry season.
He, however, pleaded with the federal government to dredge the river channel so that goods would be able to move through the river channel all-year-round as this would have immense benefits to the country.

He paid tribute to the operations team at the port which consists of the supervisors, dockers, crane operators, and forklift operators who really put in immense effort to ensure the operation was seamless and successful.
According to the Onitsha River Port chief executive, the goal of the company is to continue to strive to make the point that ort great despite all the challenges.