Ports: Bello-Koko Moves to Improve on Trade Facilitation, Begins Ports Infrastructure Overhaul, Automation Upgrade
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By Francis Ugwoke
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mr Mohammed Bello-Koko, has said that he is working assiduously to bring Nigerian ports to the level of global ports in terms of standards and efficiency in service delivery.
To this effect, Bello-Koko said the authority has identified issues of decaying infrastructures in the ports in a bid to carry out rehabilitation.
As part of the efforts to promote trade facilitation, he said the authority is planning a new automation upgrade in the ports involving the port community system.
Speaking to newsmen on Saturday, he said the target is to create a port environment in which ship owners would at all times want to come to Nigeria because of improved facilities.
“In all we do, we try to create an environment where ship owners will say, I don’t mind going to Nigeria because they have navigational aids, they have fenders now, because there is better security now, because signal stations are working now”, he said.
He explained that the importance of ports infrastructure rehabilitation cannot be over-emphasized, adding that this will bring more ships to Nigerian ports.
According to him, the more ships coming to Nigeria, the lower the cost for shipping into Nigeria.
“So, if there are 100 ships coming in, the cost will be lower than if they are only 20”, he said.
Bello-Koko said the authority has taken a total review of areas where ports infrastructures have been suffering decay and need for rehabilitation.
He pointed out, for instance, Tin Can Island, Apapa and Eastern ports as requiring rehabilitation.
The management has already approached some of the terminal operators on their level of commitment to the rehabilitation project since their lease agreement would soon expire after 15years tenure, he said.
He equally said that while the processes for renewal were in place, there was the need for categorical commitment from the terminal operators in the development of the ports.
The MD further explained that the rehabilitation of the ports infrastructure now was imperative, stating that if not carried out, the terminal operators will continue managing the situation with the consequences of the infrastructures suffering risk of total collapse.
He revealed that a good number of international financial organisations including, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) were showing interest in the being part funding of the rehabilitation project if there was such need.
He recalled that the World Bank had some years ago contributed money to NPA to construct Apapa port.
Bello Koko said the management has approached the government to ask if it can be allowed to use certain percentage of the money it contributed to Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) to reconstruct these ports.
“ We need to focus our budget towards the rehabilitation of those quay walls at the Tin-Can port. We have taken a holistic review of decaying infrastructures at our ports and have decided that it is very important that we rehabilitate Tin-Can and Apapa port.
“We are asking the terminal operators, you people have operated these port terminals for about 15years; how much money are you going to invest in this port terminals? We are asking some of them that their leases have expired, how much will they be investing in the ports?
“For us to renew these concession agreements that have expired, about five of them, we need to have categorical commitment from the affected terminal operators on the development of these port terminals. If the terminal operators cannot give us such commitment, then we either give the terminals to someone else or go and borrow money to rehabilitate those ports.
“However, if we go and borrow money to rehabilitate those ports, then what the terminal operators are paying will have to change. The rates will have to go up. If we don’t do that, these terminal operators will keep managing those places, and the ports will keep collapsing.
“Because of their financial interest, these terminal operators don’t want us to re-construct the affected port terminals because that will mean stopping them from operating”.
However, owing to the bad situation in Delta and Calabar ports, he disclosed that rehabilitation has started.
According to him, following vandalization of the channels in the Eastern ports sometime ago, the authority has been focusing on rehabilitation Delta and Calabar ports.
To this effect, fenders and buoys, he said, are being laid for the safety of some ships that have been coming.
On automation, Bello-Koko said his management is now working towards upping the ports automation level having realized that modern ports all over the world have embraced this trend.
He emphasized that in doing this, the authority wants a situation in which its automation project was taken to the fullest level.
He added that to get the best, the authority has consulted the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) as this is to be deployed to the entire port community system.
Part of this reason, he said was to ensure that all stakeholders, including shipping services providers, all agencies of government in the ports, terminal operators, among others who can log into the central system support the project.
He added, “I would want to see our ports fully automated. Automation is the backbone of efficiency in our ports.
” It will achieve improved revenue. It will achieve a lot of things we want to achieve. I am really really interested in getting this done.
“We have so much automation done in isolation and we need to integrate them.
“We need to put up something that everybody will love to log into. We need to copy a system that is being used in other developed countries, something that will add value, something that everyone agrees with and that is the port community system and harbor automation”.
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