The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has disclosed plans to spend $1billion on the reconstruction of the Tin Can Island Port Complex and comprehensive rehabilitation of Apapa, Rivers, Onne, Warri and Calabar Port complexes.
It also disclosed its preparedness for similar reconstruction and rehabilitation under the new ports development plan for the Badagry Deep Seaport, Snake Island, Burutu and Ondo Deep Seaports, adding that the activation of the Port Community System (PCS) and the National Single Window are other initiatives aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the nation’s ports.
Management of NPA said it was poised to transform its strategic intention of being the maritime logistics hub for sustainable port services in Africa from potential to reality.
In a document sighted by The Trumpet and titled: Consolidation of Superior Performance at the Nigerian Ports Authority 2023-A Synopsis of the Authority’s Performance Improvement 2022-2023, the NPA revealed that despite global economic headwinds that characterised 2023, the Managing Director, Mohammed Bello Koko, leapfrogged 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 federation’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), with revenues steadily growing from N361billion in 2022 to N501billion as of December 2023, adding that remittances increased from N93.4billion in 2022 to N131.2billion in 2023.
The document also captured taxes paid to the Federal Government, which it said, grew at various times in the period under review amounting to $77.7million and N17.6 billion respectively.
The NPA disclosed that it contributed to the deepening of Nigeria’s balance of trade through the promotion of exports, especially of non-oiI exports in response to the national exigency of strengthening the naira.
The management explained that to create new businesses and promote multi-modalism in line with global best practices 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 N2billion annual generation business both from direct investment and accompanying externalities.
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“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. During the period under review, the authority licensed 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 all bureaucracy and attendant delays that hitherto undermined the competitiveness of Nigerian Exports in the International marketplace.
“The resultant effect of this initiative was a quantum leap in the numbers of Nigerian export-laden containers from 159, 790 TEUs in 2022 to 226,456 TEUs in 2023,” the document further revealed.
Besides, the NPA said it had also increased the number of ship calls sequel to the consistent dredging of channels, installation of buoys and improved security at the ports’ channels, adding that the number of ship calls grew from 1,997 vessels in 2022 to 2,179 vessels at the end of 2023.
It also disclosed that the Lekki Deep Sea Port, which doubles as Nigeria’s first fully automated port at take-off, processed 6,076 TEUs of transhipment cargo, which 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.”
“To maximise 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,” the NPA further stated.
The Authority sustained its revenue performance, during the period under review, by looking beyond the sole dependence on earnings from core port operations.
It maintained that the Authority had set Public Private Partnership (PPP) modalities in motion to derive revenue from Port’s Independent Power Production, Bunkering Stations, Fallow Lands for Logistics, Fresh Water Provision and Ship Repairs and Maintenance and to insulate its income from leakages, even as the Authority had firmed up its Revenue Invoice Management System (RIMs) to the cutting edge version of RIMs 2.0.
NPA also disclosed that it collaborated with the NLNG Ship Management Limited to deploy the Vessel Traffic Service VTS to complement the newly-equipped control towers across its locations to assure stakeholders of its domain awareness capacity for enhanced security and in response to emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
