NPA, APM Terminal Feud Over Payment Of Dollar-Denominated Debt In Naira

The current scarcity of foreign exchange may have pitched the Nigerian Ports Authourity against one of its prime terminal operator; APM Terminal. The bone of contention is the payment of US Dollar-denominated debt.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that earlier in the year, there had been disagreements between the NPA and the terminal operators over how much they owed. In that earlier report, APM Terminal was said to be owing NPA about $265,584,069.68 as lease fees, and about $30,069.94 as throughput fees.
All efforts to confirm the size of the liability was rebuffed as sources close to either party refused to divulge it.
But a source at APM Terminal confirmed that it is quite huge. ‘’You know we are a big operator’’, he said.
It couldn’t be ascertained whether the current bone of contention is about the earlier published fees or a part of it, but a source confirmed to our correspondent that NPA had already written several letters to the terminal operator to pay up.
The highly placed source at NPA, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authourised to speak, confirmed that “we have written to them to pay up, but they are pleading that they can not procure Dollar, but fees were collected in Dollar and not in Naira”. He confirmed that both parties have been on the matter for ‘’a while’’.
Similarly, the source at APM Terminal also, in further confirming the indebtedness to NPA, told our correspondent that the company has been trying to pay the debt in bits from revenue collected from shipping lines, but that it is not enough to clear the huge debt.
“The amount of Dollars we receive from shipping firms for services that we render, we have been paying all to NPA, we have written to NPA and even the CBN, to see if the CBN can give us some Dollars so that we can pay, but it’s not just there”, he explained to Shipping Position Daily .
We have written to NPA to explain the situation, but NPA is saying No; that is the situation, it’s not like we are not owing, but we have Naira to pay, but they are saying they want Dollar.
When pressed further to come up with the exact figure, he said: No, but I can tell you that it’s in hundreds of Millions, but we have been paying in bits”
“Releasing the figures is against the terms of the concession agreement”, he stated.