Lagos – The Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, is considering granting new tariff reliefs to shipping companies and terminal operators at some eastern ports, especially Calabar.
This is part of moves by the NPA management to make the ports more attractive to shipping lines and cargo owners.
The Acting Managing Director of the Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko, disclosed this while speaking at a meeting with port service providers shortly after a facility assessment tour of the Onne and Rivers Ports.
He emphasised on the need for the building of modern port infrastructure, saying this would fast track the country’s economic development, facilitate good paying jobs and enable sustained peace across the country.
Bello-Koko reiterated the Authority’s resolve to improve quality delivery at the Eastern ports so that they can serve as competitive alternatives to the ports in Lagos.
He said the NPA, on behalf of its supervising Ministry, is working with relevant agencies towards reducing turn-around time for cargo clearance and cost of handling non-oil exports, to compliment the economic diversification agenda of the Federal Government.
He said: “We have made budgetary provisions for the construction of critical access roads. We have also observed that Onne has transformed into a very busy gateway, but unfortunately unauthorised persons have begun to find their way into the port to vandalise assets belonging to the Authority.
“We all have noticed in recent months the upsurge in cargo traffic at Onne. There has been an improvement in the traffic here and there is need to ensure that what we experienced in Lagos does not repeat itself here in terms of traffic congestion and the access roads which must be free of gridlocks.
“In line with our infrastructure development and modernisation agenda, we have come here to inspect the port internal roads network because we must develop the necessary infrastructure that would support and sustain the increasing cargo volumes at Onne Port and other port locations.”
The NPA boss, however, frowned at the level of redundancy at some of the terminals at the port. The Authority, he said, would review approvals issued with respect to the affected terminals in terms of the type of cargo so that they can begin to attract appreciable cargo volumes.
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