“Port Concession Took 22,000 Jobs, Costs $400million” — Npa Md

About three years into the famous port concession programme of the Federal Government, a clearer picture of the number of employees of Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) and dockworkers who lost their jobs tom the exercise have emerged.
The startling revelation that 9,000 employees of NPA and 13,000 dockworkers got the booth was made in far- away, Djibouti, East Africa by the managing About three years into
 the famous port
 concession programme of the Federal Government, a clearer picture of the number of employees of Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) and dockworkers who lost their jobs tom the exercise have emerged.
The startling revelation that 9,000 employees of NPA and 13,000 dockworkers got the booth was made in far- away, Djibouti, East Africa by the managing director, NPA, Malam Abdusallam Mohammed when he addressed a gathering of experts at the 7th Pan African Ports cooperation Conference, (PAPC) which ended last weekend.
The NPA boss also disclosed that government expended a staggering US$400Million on payment of severance benefits to the affected workers. 
Speaking for the first time on the actual number of casualties and the financial implication to the government which had been put at different figures, Abdusallam said that the option of paying-off dockworkers was to ensure that the new terminal operators and the port system enjoyed industrial harmony.
To achieve this, he added that NPA management had to embark on reorientation and attitudinal changes for the workforce and that the management also ensured that no staff was laid off until they were paid their entitlements.
At a point, NPA, with government approval had to source for funds from banks when the initial projection of US $30 Million became grossly insufficient to meet the severance package of workers who would be laid off.
According to him, the concessioning of Nigerian ports to private terminal operators was the initiative of the World Bank based on the findings of earlier studies that were conducted by Messrs Royal Haskonning/ Dynamar and Challenge groups.
Abdusallam told the gathering of port experts at the week long conference that the fortunes and performances of NPA have soared since the ports were concessioned.  According to him, the ports now enjoy high revenue base, arising from reduced vessel waiting time, reduced cargo dwell time, improved berth occupancy, improved security, especially on cargoes as well as a general enviable increase of cargo through-put.
“Twenty five numbers of amortized projects are presently at various stages of completion; with a total value of the projects now at over US $496.11 million” he stated, highlighting that areas covered by the projects include road construction, berthing facilities, dredging of channels and storage facilities”, he stressed.  
According to him, port concession effort has also attracted a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) project from the Port and Terminal Multiservices Ltd (PTML) in to developing a green field of RORO Berth on 25 years arrangement with a total value of $87, 400,000, with the main project costing US$62.4 million and the rest being spent on additional work of dredging and land reclamation, on a second phase basis.