The Federal Government is planning to set up another deep seaport in the next three to four years, the Nigerian Ports Authority has disclosed.
The Managing Director of NPA, Muhammad Bello-Koko, said in an interview with Nigerian Ports Today, a quarterly publication of the agency, sighted by our correspondent.
Giving an update on the recently approved Badagry deep seaport, Bello-Koko said that proposals had been received for the establishment of other seaports in the country.
“If we look at what happened in the Lekki Deep seaport, it took at least three years and we expect that in the next three to four years, another deep seaport will come up. So, the Badagry deep seaport has the Federal Government’s approval. The other ports are still developing and a proposal has been set up for all these port locations and we are working with the Federal Ministry of Transportation and other government agencies to ensure that the business case is properly developed. I believe that after the issue of financial construction, most of them would have concluded their financial arrangement, approvals, and some of them will be working, and we expect to see at least one or two seaports in the next four to five years.”
The NPA boss, however, disclosed that the agency had witnessed an increase in revenue by over 60 to 70 per cent in 2023.
Bello-Koko said in the last eight years, the agency had been able to capture more of the cargoes that were going to neighbouring countries.
“This means that we have more cargo traffic into the country, which has added to the gross domestic profit of the country and also increased the revenue of the NPA,” he noted.
The NPA boss added that the agency had witnessed increased activities in Calabar port, stating that the agency wanted to ensure that the tariff trickles down to the end users.
“What was done has more to with Calabar port, to encourage people to bring large vessels into that port and we have seen some increase in the activity. But we are going to ensure that this tariff trickles down to the end users.”
Bello-Koko also said that the agency had set up a committee to ensure that reduced tariff is used to encourage importers to use the Calabar port.
“That is if I bring in a container here and it is costing me a million naira, if we reduce the tariff, we should be able to bring it to Calabar and there is a committee working on this. It is not only tariff that you have to make eastern ports work. You also need to ensure that there is security there, and that is why we are working with the Nigerian Navy.”
Meanwhile, Bello-Koko disclosed that the NPA had not reviewed port tariffs in 30 years, despite the rising inflation in the country.
