Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — APMT’s West Africa Container Terminal, WACT, Onne, Rivers State has signed a Memorandum of Agreement, MoA, to promote cooperation and development in its host community of Ogu.
Speaking on Thursday at the agreement signing ceremony, the Managing Director of WACT, Naved Zafar, said the move will enhance peace and economic development of the community.
“This is a day I have passionately looked forward to for almost two years. Our journey started with a very humble beginning. We started operations with a very small team, no place of our own, not much of container business, but with a strong vision and commitment for the future.
“Looking at where we are now and what we have achieved, we can all be proud of it. That represents an incredible story of public-private and local community partnership in Nigeria, where international companies come and invest in a greenfield project, and based on that, develop an entire port ecosystem, promote Nigerian trade and support the local community,” he said.
Zafar said over the past two and a half years, WACT been on a transformation journey. He said the transformation journey includes enhancing relations with the host communities.
“We started our partnership, and to better cooperate and coordinate with each other, we brought in transparency, visibility, and inclusivity in our relationship of what we do together. As simple as this may sound, the work required to build this relationship on these three pillars was both exhausting and herculean. Gratefully, we have started recording huge results even before this day.
“The choice of building the community engagement on the pillars of transparency, visibility, and inclusivity is in strong alignment with our group’s purpose of improving life for all by integrating the world. At WACT, we are on a mission to make life better for our people, which does not end with our employees but also our stakeholders, which the good people of Ogu community stand tall,” Zafar said.
Also speaking, the Executive Chairman of Ogu/Bolo Local Government, Vincent Nemieboka, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Isaac William, commended WACT for bringing positive changes and development to the community. He assured WACT of the community’s cooperation and support.
The agreement signing ceremony was witnessed by the management staff of WACT, member of the House of Assembly representing Ogu/Bolo state constituency of Rivers State, community leaders and representatives of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Oil and Gas Free Sone Authority (OGFZA), Nigeria Customs Services (NCS), Department of State Service (DSS) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
WACT is the first greenfield terminal built in Nigeria under the public-private partnership initiated by the Federal Government in 2003.
