The Senate Committee on Marine Transport has commended the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) for its newly-introduced electronic 'e-payment system' for its revenue collection.
Members of the committee led by its Chairperson; Senator Zainab Kure on an oversight function to the headquarters of the apex maritime agency in Marina Lagos yesterday, said that the scheme will bring efficiency to NPA operations.
The Senate Committee on Marine Transport has commended the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) for its newly-introduced electronic 'e-payment system' for its revenue collection.
Members of the committee led by its Chairperson; Senator Zainab Kure on an oversight function to the headquarters of the apex maritime agency in Marina Lagos yesterday, said that the scheme will bring efficiency to NPA operations.
The lawmakers have also commended the NPA for the development of the drought of the water channels, saying that this has given room for bigger vessels to call at Nigerian ports.
Senator Kure said that "I want to use this opportunity to congratulate the NPA over the substantial achievements recorded recently, the e-payment issue that was introduced, most of us watched it on television, it is a very good achievement that is important at this point in time".
"With the world going digital, these things are very important for the development of an organization as important as the NPA" she said
Kure also said that the committee has graciously accepted the apologies of the NPA Managing Director for his inability to receive the lawmakers at their last oversight visit to the agency.
"The apologies tendered by the NPA has been long accepted, we have forgiven the shortcomings as far as the last visit is concerned" she said.
She underscored the importance of the visit saying that it is to ascertain the level of project performance before the passage of the budget for 2014. According to her, President Goodluck Jonathan has charged the National Assembly on the completion of ongoing projects,”we need to see what we are appropriating on".
Also speaking during the visit, another member of the committee, Senator Sadiq Yar’ adua observed that there has been an increase in the draught of the Nigeria water channels.
"I know that a few years back, the target was for us to reach 11-12meteres, it used to be 9.5meters, but I understand that now we have as much as 13.5meters, this is good news for Nigeria because it makes our ports conform to international standards and bigger ships can now come in", he said.
Welcoming the senators earlier, Managing Director of NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi acknowledged the enormous potentials in the maritime industry which according to him can be harnessed with the support of the lawmakers.
Abdullahi informed the lawmakers that the new e-payment system will reduce human contact at the ports and that it will enable NPA collect its revenue promptly.
"The most important thing for us is to see how we can increase our revenue, without revenue there is nothing we can achieve, in order to do this we have come up with some initiatives, the most important thing is the e-payment which we have commissioned and we try to implement"
"With this, there will be a reduction in physical contacts at the port and at the same time it will increase revenue", he explained.
Abdullahi lamented that the Federal Government policy on rice importation, cement, as well as vehicles has affected the revenue of the NPA.
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