In a bid to ensure a healthy competition
among existing ports and the ongoing Lekki Deep Sea Port and Badagry
Deep Sea Ports, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is developing a ports
master plan to be unveiled in the next six months.
Managing Director of NPA, Ms. Hadiza Bala
Usman disclosed this in her speech at the World Maritime Day
Celebration held in Lagos.
Bala Usman noted that the existing model
where port development was not well thought out will see the ports
compete each other out of business; a situation she said would be bad
for the industry.
She said: “One of the important things
that I have felt the need to institute is the port development master
plan, a 25 years master plan, which will guide the development of ports I
the country. We have commenced that activity at the NPA. I met on
ground a development master plan for individual port in the NPA but I
felt the need to have a holistic master plan which guides all such port
development. That way we will not have over laps and have ports that
will be competing with each other and compete each other out of
business.
She added: “We need to have a clear plan
and structure with which port development plan s are approved. We have
the Lekki Deep Sea Port approval currently going on in Lagos state, we
have the Badagry Deep Sea Port and we have Tincan and Apapa ports. We
need to have the respective scope with which these ports will operate to
ensure that capacity utilisation in terms of capacity is addressed as
we approve such port development. So having a master plan, a clear
vision of port development is critical and the NPA is leading that.
Within the next six months we will come out with a port development
master plan which we will unveil to stakeholders before we get the
necessary approval.”
On port capacity utilisation and its
current capacity, she said: “I think what we need to understand is that
as we approve and as we present respective port development, we need to
understand and assess what we have now on capacity utilisation. Has it
been utilised fully? We need to look at clusters of port development to
determine the competition as we approve them. We have to determine if
indeed what we have would be able to accommodate the need for expansion
and traffic to come into the country.
“We have noted the period were the
deployment has been made and we have identified need to build on the
existing infrastructure. Right now we have commissioned our staff to go
around all of our ports to determine the level of decay of our
infrastructure. Primarily, I have given the clear directive that all our
budgetary provisions will be tied to infrastructure that will add
revenue to the Nigerian Ports Authority. Indeed our focus is to see that
our degenerated infrastructure is built upon and expanded to take on
need for the Nigerian port to have expansive capacity to take on
additional traffic.”
Speaking on the plan to review port
concession agreement, she said as someone who worked at the Bureau of
Public Enterprise (BPE), she understands the need for private sector to
lead in the investment and development of the ports in the country.
“I met on ground concessions that have
been 10 years in operation and I believe that it is time for us to have a
review. The concessionnaires themselves believe that it is time to look
at some of its terms. The economic situation in which some of the
concession agreements were entered into are not the same today. There
are clear assumptions that were made within those initial concessions
that are different now. There are also respective obligation across both
parties that have not been met within the 10 years has not been met. I
think it’s time for both parties to seat around the tale and review
those terms to determine what obtains today.
“We have noted the operators have
development plans that they have not adhere to during the concession
period, we have noted that the authority itself has not committed to
some of the obligations that were stipulated in the concession. As we go
through the review of the concession, both parties need to confirm and
commit to their part of the agreements. We will ensure sanctions and
penalties for not compliance across the board, both the authorities and
the operators, going forward we will ensure that there is a level
playing field for all operators.
“Within the concession agreement,
everyone can confirm that there was need for a review within two years
but we have waited 10 years for a holistic review of the concession
agreement. We have also noted the few review in view of tenor
elongations without a commensurate review of the financing model, which
are tied to each other. Whatever timelines you have for the revision
period is tied to the financing model and a tariff regime which is
contained within the concession agreement, “he said.
By Eromosele Abiodun/THISDAY
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