Senate Committee On Marine Faults Port Concession

About seven years after the port concession exercise was carried out in Nigeria, the Senate Committee on Marine Transport yesterday faulted the exercise on the grounds that it has not met the expectations of stakeholders and the intendment for which the exercise was carried out.

About seven years after the port concession exercise was carried out in Nigeria, the Senate Committee on Marine Transport yesterday faulted the exercise on the grounds that it has not met the expectations of stakeholders and the intendment for which the exercise was carried out.
The committee is of the opinion that the vital part of the concession agreement is that, it was envisaged to lead to increase in employment but that this is not obtainable because it has led to job losses while the terminal operators have not lived up to expectations. They also said that the exercise has not added to the local content dream of the Nigerian government.
These observations were made yesterday when the Senate Committee on Marine Transport led by its chairman, Senator Zynab Kure came on a working visit to the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, Mallam Habib Abdullahi.
Speaking shortly after embarking on inspection of the on-going projects of the NPA, especially the N5billion rehabilitation of its marina headquarters, Chairman of the committee pointed out that, “there is still more to be done if the concessioning programme is to become a good success because this committee has been updated with reports of arbitrary charges by operators. It is assumed that the nation needs an economic regulator in this direction to protect all port users and their operations”.
The committee equally expressed dissatisfaction at the level of work being carried out on the headquarters building saying that the foreign contractor has wasted 12 months out of the 24 months assigned for the construction.
Earlier, while welcoming the committee members, the NPA MD had informed the Senators that activities at the nations’ seaports have increased, culminating in higher cargo throughput. He also told the Senators that ship turn-around-time has improved significantly, owing largely to availability of cargo handling equipment.