Stakeholders Calls for New Ports Development In Nigeria 5 For Nigeria to become the hub of maritime business in West and Central African sub region, there is need to develop new ports to accommodate the soaring volume of cargoes into the country, stakeholders in the industry have said. At a event tagged ‘’The First Nigerian Green Field Port Development summit put together by Golden Edge Consults Limited in collaboration with the Nigeria Port Authority[NPA]held in Lagos last week, key stakeholders in the industry stressed the need to develop Greenfield deep seaport in the country. Leading the pack of those who pushed for the new approach, former Managing Director, Nigeria Port Authority [NPA], Chief Adebayo Sarumi said that planning plays a key role in the Greenfield development in the country thus traffic specializations should be put in place for future growth and development of the sector and the country. Sarumi who also chaired the summit said that traffic forecast must be determined to consider the types of cargoes that will flow into the hinterland. Speaking on the topic; ‘’challenges of ports development and the essential ingredient on the evolution of hub port in Nigeria ‘’, the former boss of the NPA noted that the port authority should not serve as the landlord of the ports and as regulator to the concessionaires, adding that the regulator should be free to stand without interest from the concessionaires. He said that NPA as landlords and regulator of the ports will not favour foreign investors in doing port business in the country. ‘’I heard people say that Nigeria Port Authority will be both landlords and regulator, which I will say it’s not possible because you won’t get it right. Because as a landlord, if there are other people there you will likely favour your own people more than you will favour their competitors’’. According to him, a regulator should be above all other operators pointing out that a regulator must have no interest in the development of ports. ‘’A regulator must be difference from a landlord because a landlord can finish building and go away and give the place to someone to manage but the regulator must stand separate to look into the activities of the landlords’’, he stated. Earlier in his speech, Managing Director, Golden Edge Consult Limited, Mr. Samuel Egbewole disclosed that the existing ports in the Western region can no longer accommodate more than half of the volume of cargoes coming into the country. According to him, statistics has shown that the number of vessels that called at the ports pre – concession in 2006 rose from 3,689 vessels to 5327 vessels in 2011 while the Total Registered Gross [GRT] increased from 63,267,047 metric tonnage in 2006 to 122,831,704 tonnage in 2011. ‘’Experts have observed that if the Nigerian economy must develop properly, the country must not only do away with the business as usual syndrome .It must also develop new ports, on new fields so as to consolidate on the gains of the existing ones.’’ ‘’It is gratifying to note that the NPA and the Akwa Ibom state government have sought out reliable technical partners and investors to develop the Ibaka deep port. The same thing is going on at Lekki port and beside the Badagry port and the Olokola Free Trade Zone are similarly being developed, ‘’he added.
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