The Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Dr. George Moughalu has assured that the processes of the concessioning the Onitsha River Ports is on-going.
Moughalu who said this at a stakeholders’ interactive session on Friday in Lagos said he was to visit the port of Antwerp in Belgium on Sunday for due diligence towards the concession, but had to cancel the trip due to the spread of Coronavirus.
He added that once the issue of due diligence is resolved, the process of concessioning the strategic river ports will commence.
He said: "When I came, the concessioning process of Onitsha River ports had started, my first outing at the National Assembly was to go and defend a petition against the process of the commercialization"
“Concessioning is a process and not an action, and so it will not augur well if a name is put out and at the end of the day, the person will not meet the criteria,” he said.
" I would have traveled on Sunday night to Belgium with my team to the port of Antwerp for due diligence, they have come here over a month ago, their team came here and went to Onitsha port and did their research after which they wrote to us that they are ready for us. But due to this Coronavirus, we can’t; we put a hold, once that is resolved we will continue the process"
"Today as we speak, I can assure you that the Baro River ports is 100% completed, Onitsha River port is 100% completed, the Lokoja River Ports is about 62% completed"
Explaining further, he said that there are lots of processes involved in concessioning of a project unlike when selling of personal property.
While reeling out his achievements within four months as the NIWA boss, Moghalu said that NIWA was procuring additional dredgers and would be going into maintenance dredging.
He said that it would start standardising dredging in Lagos.
Moghalu said that NIWA was building a data base of all professional certified boat operators, with the aim of arresting persons or impounding boats when they fell short of expectations.
“NIWA is not well known, and so we are sensitising people, local communities with regards to our rules and regulations so that they don’t fall short of them.
“As regards enforcement, we have NIWA police and our task force is made up of the army and navy to help enforce rules.
“There have been defaulters, but some of them are ignorant of our regulations and this is why we are pleading with the media to help project what we do,” he said.
The NIWA boss however said that no concessioning process has started for Baro port, even as he said that the port is 100% completed.
Moughalu fingered bad access roads as one of the major challenges hindering the efficiency of Baro ports.
"Concessioning goes through a lot of processes and those processes are on now as we speak, but for Baro nothing yet has started in the line of concessioning, but Baro has two challenges that I identified when I went there and one of them is access road".
He maintained that the state of the roads at Baro ports makes it impossible for.private investors to come on board.
He nevertheless said that he had commenced discussion with the Niger state government to address the state of the road.
"For example, if I bring cargo to offload in Baro, through which road do I take the cargo out. So I have opened a discussion with the Niger state government and I will be going there next week and the road is principally why I am going there"
"I have also opened discussion with the Federal Ministry of work and the issue of Baro road is in the budget. So once I have been able to resolve that, I can assure you that interested investors will come. Investors may not be attracted to it now, though the port is world class, everything about it is completed properly constructed and commissioned by the President"
He said the agency is looking at how to get money to complete other ports including Oguta ports.
"Investors might not invest because of the roads. I am committed and determined to doing it. Fortunately I have gotten the approval of the management everybody shares my emotions that we need to get these two ports functional"
"So we are looking at how to get money to compete the ports even the Oguta ports. I cannot be able to put a figure to how much we need to complete the ports now"
According to him ensuring that the Onitsha and Baro ports are fully completed and functional is one of the things he wants to achieve before leaving office.
"That was why my first official visit after my appointment was to go to Baro from Lokoja by water, because I want to see things myself. I resumed work today and the next morning I went to Baro with my senior staff, it is a completed ports likewise Onitsha River ports"
He said that Oguta port is 60% completed even as he complained that the ports has been abandoned for over 20years now.
"Oguta is about 61% completed but abandoned because in the past 10years it has not been in the budget and you heard me say that I had engaged with the Imo state government, I have also engaged some critical stakeholders, we are looking at how we can get free money so that we can get that place completed"
"Because for me if the federal government has invested 60% running into billions on a project living it uncompleted is a waste of money. The structures there are dilapidating so completing it for me is a priority same to Lokoja" he concluded.
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