Headlines

Bello- Koko takes his removal as NPA MD with philosophical calmness

Bello-Koko

—- thanks President Tinubu, Buhari for opportunity to serve

Funso Olojo

Mohammed Bello-Koko, whose appointment as the Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) was terminated on Friday, July 12th, 2024, has taken the fate that befell him with stoicism.

Reacting to his dismissal on Saturday, July 16th.2024, Bello Koko, in his X handle, expressed appreciation to both the former President Mohammedu Buhari and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for giving him the opportunity to serve.

He reminisced on his sojourn at the NPA when he was appointed Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the NPA in 2016 before he was appointed acting MD, NPA and consequently made a substantive Managing Director in 2022.

He also expressed his deepest apologies to those whose toes he may have stepped on during his tenure as the NPA helmsman

“I’d like to deeply appreciate His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and former President Muhammadu Buhari for the incredible opportunity to serve as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority.

“Having worked round the clock for the past eight years in the maritime sector, I feel greatly honored to have served the nation in this very important position.

“From my first appointment as Executive Director of Finance & Administration in mid-2016 to an acting Managing Director and later as the substantive Managing Director, these roles availed me of the opportunity to learn, unlearn, and relearn the ropes of maritime business and master the art of public service.

“It has been a great experience working to build a strong institution that will form the foundation for a number of reforms.

“In these years, we have leveraged staff development, technology, and equipment renewal to improve user experience in the ports.

“The result is evident in a productive workplace, improved customer satisfaction, and high remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

“The deployment of the Port Community System and port modernization program (about to commence) are projects that remain close to my heart as they are catalysts for port efficiency.

“Today isn’t much about myself, so I congratulate Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, with whom I have high hopes to build on these legacies.

“To the Executive Management and the entire staff members of the Authority, your support and commitment have been incredibly satisfying. Let’s keep the ball rolling!

“At this point, I also recognize in no small measure, the support, learnings, and cooperation of major maritime stakeholders, such as the Terminal Operators, Shipping Companies, Joint Venture Companies, Freight Forwarders, etc without which we would not have witnessed the major developments in the port sector.

“I will not forget the unflinching support of my friends in the media that made it possible for the whole world to know what we have done.

“Lastly, to my friends who felt slighted for my inability to return their calls (between, it’s not deliberate ), and to my family who’ve endured my absence due to the exigencies of work, I extend my gratitude for your cooperation and understanding throughout my sojourn at the Nigerian Ports Authority.” Bello-Koko concluded.

Headlines

Maritime Journalists document Customs’ operations, maritime development under Tinubu government

Gloria Odion, Maritime Reporter

The duo of Chief Timothy Okorocha and Francis Ugbokwe, two versatile journalists with many years of experiences under their belts, are set to unveil an iconic book, which they authored, to the public where they have carefully and professionally documented developments in maritime industry, including the revolutionary trend in the Nigeria customs service.

Part of the book presentation is a seminar with a topic titled ‘3 Years After Marine & Blue Economy Ministry, How Far, How Well?.

This paper will be deliered by the Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr. Adegboyega Oyetola.

The book is about the comprehensive examination of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in both revenue generation, anti-smuggling operations and transformation within the country’s broader economic and trade architecture.

The book also places particular emphasis on the reform trajectory and institutional performance under the leadership of Bashir Adewale Adeniyi as well as the maritime agencies, while situating these developments within the wider policy direction of the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

It presents a timely contribution to ongoing national conversations around revenue optimization, trade facilitation, efficiency and institutional accountability.

The book equally captures activities in the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy since its creation in 2023.

In particular focus are its agencies, including the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration & Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN).

The book, titled “Customs Operational Revolution and Maritime Development Under President Tinubu’ is billed for presentation on June 18th, 2026 in Lagos .

Okorocha and Ugwoke , the authors, have covered the sector for decades, ranging from when they were Maritime Correspondents in Daily Times and Thisday Newspapers respectively to when they established their own industry publications.

The book unveils in many ways the trade facilitation efforts of the present crop of leaders in the Customs Service under Adeniyi.

It also unearths the value addition of the Customs Service in revenue generation more than ever before, placing the organization in a top-notch position to be reckoned with and coming after the heavily relied upon oil sector.

Similarly, the book highlights the narratives as far as key developments are concerned in the core maritime sector with emphasis on accolades recorded in the country’s good outing when she returned to the Category C Seat of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) after close to a decade.

The return, the book notes, would not have been possible if not for the successes in the piracy war in both nation’s territorial waters and the Gulf of Guinea (GoG), a development that has made it possible for Nigeria to challenge attempts by multinational shipping lines/conference liners to impose war risk surcharges, among others on cargoes destined for Nigeria

The book also points to different weaknesses, challenges in customs operations, maritime development efforts and what experts insist must be addressed going forward.

Okorocha, who is the Publisher/Editor-In-Chief of THIS PAGE NEWSPAPER based in Lagos, was the former Daily Times Bureau Chief in charge of the six South/South states, with Headquarter in Port Harcourt.

At one time, he also served as the Newspaper’s Acting City Editor at its Kakawa office in Lagos.

He holds an Advanced Diploma in Journalism from the Times Journalism Institute (TJI) Lagos, a Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Financial Management, and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Calabar.

Ugwoke is the Managing Director of Sea Visions & Services Limited (Publisher of Shipping Day Online/Magazine), and was the Chief Maritime Correspondent, Regional Editor (South East), Group News Editor and Online Editor at different times for Thisday Newspapers.

While working in Thisday Newspaper, he won the first Best Maritime Reporter Award in 1997 organised by the Maritime Media Limited (Publisher of Shipping World Magazine).

He holds Advanced Diploma in Journalism from Times Journalism Institute (TJI) and Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU).

As part of the seminar, the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, the Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration & Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dayo Modereola and the Executive Secretary/CEO, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Dr. Pius Akutah, are all expected to deliver papers on different topics covering strides and challenges in their organisations in the past three years and few months of the present administration.

Headlines

The Trillion-Naira Vault: Building Political-Proof Ports for Nigeria

Monday Discourse with Ibrahim Nasiru

“He who controls the keys to the vault will always dictate the direction of the ship.”

The reception to my recent analysis on rethinking Nigeria’s Port financing strategy highlighted a deep-seated, justifiable skepticism within our maritime community.

While stakeholders overwhelmingly agree that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) must transition toward domestic capital mobilization and revenue retention, one critical question keeps resurfacing: How do we protect a Port Modernization Sinking Fund from the political interference that has paralyzed the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) for decades?

It is a valid worry.

In Nigeria, the road to infrastructure decay is paved with well intentioned funds that were ultimately treated as political spoils.

If a Port modernization fund is structured simply as a government bank account controlled by changing political appointees, it will fail.

This risk is particularly acute given that the NPA is now a high-stakes fiscal engine, having formally projected a staggering ₦1.489 trillion revenue target for the 2026 fiscal year during its recent budget defense before the National Assembly.

To succeed, we must move away from government custody and engineer “political-proof” maritime structures where true insulation does not come from isolating an asset from the state entirely, but from wrapping it in legal, financial, and institutional guardrails that make political meddling legally impossible and financially punishable.

The first step to safeguarding maritime revenues is removing them from the direct custody of political agencies.

A Port Modernization Sinking Fund must never sit on the balance sheet of the NPA, nor within the Treasury Single Account (TSA) where it can be swept to fund unrelated national deficits.

Instead, a portion of the NPA’s revenue stream must be legally diverted into an independent, bankruptcy-remote Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) incorporated under the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

Once the funds hit this SPV, they are legally separate from the government, meaning a sitting Minister or Managing Director cannot simply sign a memo to withdraw cash to fund a political project without violating corporate governance laws and triggering immediate litigation from asset trustees.

Furthermore, the historic failure of the CVFF lies in bureaucratic custody where politicians and regulators hold the keys to the vault.

For a Port sinking fund to work, custody must be handed over to a consortium of independent, private sector institutional trustees and asset managers who operate under strict fiduciary duties.

Their sole mandate is to protect the fund and ensure capital is deployed exclusively for the specific infrastructure projects outlined in the fund’s charter—such as quay wall reconstruction or digital single window infrastructure—leaving them legally bound to refuse any political demands for diversion under the full weight of investment laws and the Investment and Securities Act.

The most effective way to keep politicians honest is to introduce aggressive counter parties who will sue if rules are broken, which is achieved by using the retained Port revenues inside the SPV as equity to issue local currency maritime infrastructure bonds on the financial market dealers quotation (FMDQ) or Nigerian Exchange (NGX) to attract institutional investors like pension fund administrators (PFAs).

When Nigeria’s pension funds invest trillions of Naira into our Ports, the fund ceases to be an opaque government kitty and becomes a publicly traded, highly regulated instrument where the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and powerful institutional investors will demand quarterly audits, strict disclosures, and timely debt servicing, ensuring no administration risks defaulting on local bonds held by millions of working Nigerians just to satisfy a short term political interest.

To cement these structures, the National Assembly must provide legislative teeth through targeted amendments to the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) Act, including an “Irrevocable Standing Payment Order” (ISPO) or an automated revenue split mechanism.

The moment Port tariffs are paid by shipping lines via the digital National Single Window, the technology must automatically split the funds, sending 70% to the Federation Account and 30% directly to the private led infrastructure SPV, effectively hardcoding this split into the Port’s digital architecture to eliminate human discretion and political approvals from the collection loop entirely.

Ultimately, we cannot allow the mismanagement of the past to paralyze our economic imagination for the future.

The CVFF failed because it was designed as an insular, government controlled honeypot, but a Port Modernization Fund built on private trusteeship, SPV structures, and capital market accountability changes the game entirely.

If Nigeria is to successfully modernize the century old Apapa Port and fix the decaying berths at Tin Can Island, we must build financial structures that outlast political administrations, treating financial engineering with the same urgency as civil engineering to ensure that our maritime wealth is locked securely in service of the nation’s trade, far out of the reach of political interference.

Chief Ibrahim Nasiru , a public affairs analyst, writes from

Abuja

Analyses

The trillion naira vault: Building political-proof ports for Nigeria

The Monday Discourse with Ibrahim Nasiru focuses on the strategy to lock away the NPA’s port modernisation funds from the groping hands of the politicians in other to avert the calamity which befell the infamous Cabotage Vessels Financing Fund (CVFF)

Following up on the intense national discussion regarding the NPA’s ₦1.489 trillion revenue target, here is a preview of my analysis on how we can structurally lock this massive wealth away from bureaucratic hands.

We cannot allow the historic failure of the Cabotage Vessels Financing Fund (CVFF) to paralyze our economic imagination.

The solution to Port decay isn’t to stop collecting funds, but to change who holds the keys to the vault.

From deploying bankruptcy-remote SPVs to issuing local currency infrastructure bonds backed by pension funds, this piece outlines the exact financial engineering needed to modernize Apapa and Tin Can Island.

Watch out for the full analysis tomorrow.