The Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman, on Tuesday hinted that the ongoing review of ports concessioning agreement would be completed in the next three months.
Bala-Usman, who disclosed this in her presentation titled ‘Ports Governance Models- Our Experience’ at the ongoing First Regional Conference of IAPH in Abuja, said also that the agency was currently engaging terminal operators for the purposes of getting their inputs on the agreement.
The NPA’s boss said: “We have an inter-agency which has all the agencies of government that are part of the concessioning process.
“Also included in the review of the concession process are the Office of the Attorney-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Federal Ministry of Transportation, NPA and technical support from World Bank.
“Nigeria should expect a supplementary agreement that will be signed with the concessionaires”, she added.
According to her, as part of the ports reform initiatives, the authority will facilitate soon the deployment of multi-modal transportation modes into all ports in the country.
Bala-Usman explained further that the NPA was focused on the business of carriers by land or sea, stevedore, wharfinger, warehouseman or lighterage man, adding that it is engaging also in the construction and development of ports, docks, harbours, wharves, canals, water courses, embankments and jetties.
She pointed that the authority could enter into agreement with any person or company for the operation of any of the port facilities provided by it.
On how to move the nation’s maritime industry forward, the NPA’s boss canvassed the need for strategic decisions on the future of NPA as the ports’ landlord.
This is even as she advised the Federal Government to provide attractive fiscal and other incentives to attract foreign direct investments in the maritime industry.
