…Says Otunba Kunle Folarin
Frontline maritime sector stakeholder and vice chairman, Port Consultative Council (PCC), Otunba Kunle Folarin has called on the federal government to expedite action on its plans to audit the four year old port concessioning programme which saw foreign and indigenous private terminal operators take over stevedoring and terminal operations for the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
He told Shipping Position Weekly that the review will afford all the parties, namely: the terminal operators, NPA, BPE and others the opportunity to have a second look at the agreement which saw the nation’s seaports handed over to private terminal operators about four years ago.
Otunba Folarin who is also the chairman of community relations community of dredging of River Niger stressed that the current concessioning contract leaves room for the terminal operators to carry on unchecked while the ports are also left without a regulator,
“As it is now, NPA is seen as a junior partner in the deal, but it is the landlord, so there is a conflict, what are the responsibilities of a landlord, it must be spelt out in a more explicit way than it’s done in the agreement, what are the responsibilities of the concessionaire (it must be spelt out)”, he told our correspondent, even as he added that the role of NPA needed to be properly spelt out in the concessioning agreement.
He explained that the under the present dispensation, the importer does not have a say in where his cargo is dropped for as long as it is dropped in Lagos, Port Harcourt, or anywhere and added that this and other abuses must be addressed.
“There is the need for a review, a review from the perspective of both the service providers and the leasor of the terminals and also perhaps an opportunity to properly spell out the roles of Nigerian Port Authority and the BPE in concessioning”.
(Please go to pages 6 and 7 for details)
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