Hadiza Usman: Ports Concession Has Raised Efficiency Level, More Revenue
*Says port review exercise will address areas of non-compliance by concessionaires, NPA
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman Monday described the port concession exercise as a huge success for Nigeria and the maritime industry.
Usman said the exercise carried out about 13 years ago has led to efficiency in the ports as well as increased revenue generation.
Speaking when members of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) paid her a courtesy visit, she said the ports have witnessed improvement in turnaround time for vessels calling at the ports and operational capacities.
Usman while noting the current concerns of stakeholders, perhaps referring to the gridlock, added there could be improvement on operational capacities across the ports.
She said, “there could be improvement as it relates to deployment of operational efficiencies across our ports, but the history of where the ports were before the concession are clear. Nigerian port concessioning is a model that is being used globally to indicate a clear improvement in efficiencies”.
On improvement on revenue, she said, “even with our revenues as government agency quadrupled after the concession. Clearly, the concession is a success story”.
The NPA MD assured that the current revenue of the concession agreement will address existing loopholes in the port system.
According to her, it was an opportunity to check areas of non-compliance by either the concessionaires or the NPA.
She disclosed that under the planned review, there will be sanctions against any of the parties found to be defaulting.
She said, “we are looking at obligations by the respective parties, the Nigerian Ports Authority and the concessionaires. Some of the key takeaways from the review would be that there would be sanctioning on both sides, meaning sanctioning for non-compliance by the concessionaires and also by government.
“If government, for example, is required to maintain a particular depth of draught, and government does not do that, there will be a clear penalty that government has to take for not meeting its obligations. This is the new consideration we are looking at reflecting in the concession agreement. These were recommended to us by a consultant engaged by the World Bank to support us and we are working with the terminal operators on what needs to be done to conclude on this review.”
President of NAGAFF, Chief Increase Uche, who led the NAGAFF team in his speech called on the management of the NPA to address all barriers that have affected port productivity.
Uche pointed out the high cost of doing business in Nigerian ports was becoming unbearable, adding that freight forwarders were the ones suffering the problem of poor trade facilitation.
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