Nigerian Ports Authority has warned terminal operators and shipping companies in Nigeria to desist from delaying the payment of concession fees and other dues and levies or face severe sanctions. Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos recently, NPA’s Managing Director, Ms Hadeza Bala Usman said that the agency was poised to provide world class facilities with a view to ensuring efficient port operations. Usman reiterated her commitment at ensuring that outstanding payments and dues meant for the NPA coffers by Stakeholders are remitted as quickly as possible as this would provide an enabling environment for efficient Port services in view of the vital role the Maritime sub sector plays.”
According to the agency boss, Management has put in place a machinery at ensuring that there is a level playing field for Operators doing business in the sector using the Ports as it would ensure that rules guiding Port Operations are strictly adhered to the latter. She said that all agreements the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA) signed with port operators would be reviewed in April, as private terminal operators have been given a two-week deadline to pay all debts owed the port landlord.
The debt owed NPA is believed to be about N40 billion.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos, NPA’s managing director, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, threatened to sanction any operator who fails to clear its debt or provide holding bays for empty containers. “All terminal operators that owe NPA must be ready to pay up their debt. They must pay in the next two weeks or face serious sanctions,” she said, adding that her administration had plugged loopholes to ensure transparency and accountability. NPA’s accounts section, she said, would recover all outstanding debts to boost the nation’s revenue profile. Usman also warned the operators against violating the terms of the concession under which the terminals were handed over to them. She cautioned shipping companies against engaging in shoddy business at the ports and ordered investigation into allegations that an operator and a shipping company were violating the concession agreement.
The public relations officer of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA,), Dr Kayode Farinto, had alleged that the shipping company was charging importers additional N75,000 on each container. Farinto said shipping companies and terminal operators were making billions of naira yearly from some of the unilateral charges. She said a competitive tariff and pricing regime had been introduced at the ports, adding that NPA would ensure that operators complied with their agreements with the government.
Some of the challenges stakeholders said were militating against improved services, include: provision of a modern signal/control tower; an efficient signal station to monitor ship and other activities in the ports; provision of pilotage services by NPA; fostering Information Communication Technology (ICT) to improve service delivery through automation, hardware and speedy network and provision of marine craft and operational vehicles to boost efficiency at the ports.
The stakeholders urged NPA to address the issues of providing adequate holding bays for trucks as well as the nightmarish traffic gridlock on the access roads to the ports.
