Contrary to the widespread claim that the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) may sack five of the port terminal operators whose concession agreements have elapsed and operations are under the scrutiny of the agency, the Managing Director of the government parastatal, Mohammed Bello-Koko, has said the authority has no intention of disengaging the services of any of the operators.

“The planned renegotiation will avoid the mistakes of 2006 and aim at national interest and seek more influence for the NPA in the agreements” he stated.

According to him, of the amount sent to the CRF, a sum of N26.83billion represented the NPA‘s 2022 operational remittance.
“Because of measures we have put in place that have made us be more efficient and generate more revenue, we have been able to transfer over N45 billion to the consolidated revenue fund (CRF) , while N26.8billion of the amount was for the Authority’s operational remittance for 2022.

“We are also paying more attention to staff welfare and training. This is why we have just commissioned a training school at the Dockyard in Apapa, Lagos.

“The school has the capacity to train 380 people at a time and it is equipped with modern teaching facilities while it has accommodation for 30 people at a time. It has a canteen kitchen among other facilities.

“NPA is going into partnership with international bodies for the training of its personnel in such a way that they would have the capacity to cope with the mandate of the NPA.”

According to him, N25b of the amount was collected this year through more deliberate efforts at debt recovery and getting port managers more accountable through weekly revenue meetings.

He said the NPA under his watch has reduced administrative costs and improved Port stakeholders’ engagement to achieve efficiency and improve standards.

He described the recently commissioned Dockyard Training Institute as a way of building capacity and reducing the cost of training NPA staff abroad or in hotels because the facility is fitted with modern gadgets, including a bridge simulator.

While the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has given a 2025 deadline for port automation, he said Nigeria targets achieving it by 2023 and the country is engaging IMO consultants.

He described the port community system (PCS) as a game-changer that will bring efficiency in monitoring the arrival of vessels from fairway buoys to berths and help to evolve into a national single window system integrating all port stakeholders

He disclosed that the NPA under him had approved licenses for ten export processing terminals in Lagos, Ondo and Ogun States in line with the Federal Government’s drive to promote exports.