About a decade after the Nigerian ports were concessioned to private operators, one of the concessionaires; Ports and Cargo Terminal, a subsidiary of Sifax Group, has said that the exercise has been a blessing to the nation’s economy.
The terminal however said that the Federal Government has abandoned the maritime sector in terms of infrastructural development, noting that no meaningful investment has been carried out by the Federal Government in the last 45 years.
In an interview with Shipping Position Daily last week, Acting Managing Director of Ports and Cargo Terminal at the Tin Can Island Port, Mr. Muhammed Bulangu lamented that currently, the laxity on the part of the government has begun to erode the benefits of the port reforms.
According to him, the epileptic electricity supply, the bad ports access roads and the absence of good rail network were some of the lingering lapses of government which he said are affecting activities of concessionaires.
Bulangu had worked with Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for about years from where he retired as a General Manager before joining Sifax Group.
In the Lagos area, Bulangu said the last physically investment by government was in 1975, when the Tin Can Port and Third Wharf extensions were constructed.
At the Eastern Ports, he recalled that the Onne Port was abandoned initially, until INTELS came and start developing it in phases, noting that it is not government that was paying for the job being executed. The PTML facilities, according to him were developed in 2003 on Build Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis.
The former NPA general manager said that the Sapele Port in Delta State which was commissioned in 1982 was purely a white elephant project, he described it as a political port that has never generated revenue for the Federal Government.
“The Sapele port that was commissioned in 1982 was a white elephant project, it has never brought any revenue to the government, it was a political port. But if you look at the amount invested by the private sector in the last 10 years you would know that the port concession has been a success”
“The equipment being procured by concessionaires to deliver the services has led to increase in the volume handled in the ports today. Prior to concession, what was the throughput in the port? Compare it to what we have today”
“Minus some faults that are now affecting the ports, especially the roads and the rail, these have affected the capacity of the terminal operators”
Bulangu noted that other factors that have affected the port reforms negatively were the Federal government policies on foreign exchange and importation.
“It has really affected our way of doing business, our prayer is that the export would outgrow the imports, but before then, let the roads and the rails be put in place and working” he said.
He lamented that in the past weeks, there has not been stable electricity at the terminal. He also said that the terminal was spending millions of Naira to purchase diesel in order to provide its own electricity.
Bulangu told Shipping Position Daily that Ports and Cargo Terminal has invested billions of Naira at its terminal at the Tin Can Island port and these includes; shore cranes, Rubber Tire Gantries, Ridge Stackers, terminal tractors among others.
“Ports Cargo is a multi-purpose terminal and what we have done in the first three years of operations here is notable, the equipment procured were more than what government procured in 100 years”
“If you look at the shore cranes that we procured within the first three years of concession, we procured three of them (mobile harbour cranes), ridge stackers and terminal tractors”
“The port reform of 2003 which culminated into the concessioning of the terminals in 2006 is one major step in the right direction, thereby freeing public funds from port operations into other areas of needs in other sectors of the economy, for me it is a welcome development and it is something that has impacted positively on the economy” Bulangu stated.
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