An academician, Mr. Demola Irinyemi last week urged the Federal Government to assess its port concession programme to know if the policy had achieved its desired objectives.
Irinyemi, a Senior Lecturer with the Fortune Business School in Lagos, said that although the port concession programme was laudable, there were still some loopholes which needed to be addressed.
He said that “ports concession has resulted in face-lifting in port operations, manpower, equipment and activities.
An academician, Mr. Demola Irinyemi last week urged the Federal Government to assess its port concession programme to know if the policy had achieved its desired objectives.
Irinyemi, a Senior Lecturer with the Fortune Business School in Lagos, said that although the port concession programme was laudable, there were still some loopholes which needed to be addressed.
He said that “ports concession has resulted in face-lifting in port operations, manpower, equipment and activities.
“Sometimes ago, we used to have problems of insecurity where cargos used to be stolen, but since the concession, it is no longer so.
“Equipment at ports has also, to a large extent, assisted in facilitating trade.
“The operators have equipped the ports and recruited the right and experienced hands to work there,’’ he said.
Irinyemi said that it was now possible to talk about achieving 48-hour cargo clearance and 24-hour round the clock operations at ports.
He, however, said that port charges had risen of late to outrageous rates, thereby making the cost of doing business at the ports to become very high.
“What it cost to do business now may warrant an evaluation of the concession policy.
“The high cost of doing business in our ports is a deterrent to many shippers: both home and abroad,“ he said.
Irinyemi also said that the service delivery by some of the private operators needed improvement, adding that the operators needed to invest in modern equipment for their operations.
He advised the Bureau of Public Enterprises not to rush further implementation of the concession of ports, but to first evaluate the policy so far.
“I urged the BPE to do proper oversight and evaluate concession of ports so far so as not to cause further job losses,“ he said.
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