By Yemi Olakitan
The Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA has announced massive reconstruction plan of major ports in Nigeria, namely Tincan Island, Apapa, One, Warri and Calabar Ports.The project is estimated to cost $1 billion.
There are plans to also build other ports such as Badagry Deep Seaport, Snake Island, Burutu and Ondo Deep Seaports.
The NPA management said, on Thursday that it was poised to transform the Authority’s strategic intent of being the maritime logistics hub for sustainable port services in Africa from potential to actualities.
The proposals are contained in a document, titled: “Consolidation of superior performance at the Nigerian Ports Authority 2023-A synopsis of the Authority’s performance improvement 2022-2023.”
According to the document, the NPA management said despite global economic headwinds that characterized the year 2023, the Managing Director, Mohammed Bello Koko succeeded in leapfrogging Nigeria’s foremost trade facilitation platform to surpass its 2022 performance.
It said the implementation of performance improvement measures resulted in unprecedented revenue generation and remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), with revenues steadily growing from N361bn in 2022 to N501bn as of December 2023.
According to the management, remittances increased from N93.4 billion in 2022 to N131.2 billion by year end 2023.
The document also captured taxes paid to the Government of the Federation, which according to it, grew at various times in the period under review totalling the sum of USD$77.7 million and N17.6 billion respectively.
The document added that the NPA contributed to the deepening of Nigeria’s balance of trade through the promotion of exports of especially non-oiI export in response to the national exigency of strengthening the Naira.
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The management said that in order to create new businesses and promote multi-modalism in line with global best practice as prescribed by the International Association for Ports and Harbours (IAPH), the NPA initiated Barge Operations services which, apart from reducing pressure on the roads, had grown into a N2-billion annual generation business both from direct investment and accompanying externalities.
According to management, “Movement of cargo by barge has greatly enhanced port-hinterland connectivity as evidenced by the meteoric rise in numbers from a total of 80,244 TEUs in 2022, which by 2023 had grown to 118,046 TEUs.”
The management added: “The NPA during the period under review licensed ten (10) Export Processing Terminals to facilitate exports at Nigerian Sea Ports.
“This move which provided a one-stop shop for export processing where quality control, cargo assessment and statutory checks by all government agencies were carried out was geared towards eliminating bureaucracy and attendant delays that hitherto undermined the competitiveness of Nigerian Exports in the International market place.
“The resultant effect of this initiative, was a quantum leap in the numbers of Nigerian export-laden containers from One Hundred and Fifty-Six Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ninety (156,790) Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in 2022, to Two Hundred and Twenty-Six Thousand, Four Hundred and Fifty-Six (226,456) TEUs in 2023.”
Besides, the NPA said it had also grown the number of ship calls sequel to the consistent dredging of channels, installation of buoys and improved security at the ports’ channels.
It said the number of ship calls grew from One Thousand, Nine Hundred and Ninety-Seven (1,997) vessels in 2022 to Two Thousand, One Hundred and Seventy-Nine (2,179) vessels by the end of 2023.
It explained that the Lekki Deep Sea Port, which doubles as Nigeria’s first fully automated port at take-off, processed Six Thousand and Seventy-Six (6,076) TEUs of transhipment cargo.
This, it explained, represented a swift move that signposted the NPA’s readiness to cater to the maritime needs of Nigeria’s landlocked neighbouring countries, and “win back cargo hitherto lost to our maritime neighbours.”
The NPA management stated further: “To maximize the distinctive advantage of economies of scale that the Lekki Deep Seaport with its capacity to berth super post panamax vessels, the Authority in 2023 acquired and deployed two units of first-of-its-kind in Africa Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) 8213 model 80 Ton Bollard Pull Tugboats to enable the berthing of very large vessels of 300 metres LOA and above.”
Other initiatives on the card towards enhancing port competitiveness are the emplacements of the Port Community System (PCS) and the National Single Window.
