Barely six months after she was appointed the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman, has hit the ground running as the notorious Apapa gridlock seemingly abandoned over the years, has received a facelift.

Wharf Road, which was almost impassable in the last one year, has already received some palliative repairs; the Tincan Port access road from First Gate to PTML is already being reconstructed but the Trinity to First Gate portion of Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and Creek Road whose reconstruction project was abandoned by the Federal Government are still in a state of disrepair, inhibiting smooth movement of heavy duty vehicles coming in and out of the terminal to load containers and fuel.

On assumption of office last July, Usman set out an audit of the ports’ infrastructural challenges. In a statement, Usman said:  “The new NPA management is determined in 2017 to tackle the huge infrastructural gaps we have noticed in our ports and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing has graciously ensured that some of these projects are provided for in the 2017 budget and they will be executed during the period.”

On the money owed to NPA by its clients, it was disclosed that though over N174 billion debts have been unearthed by the Usman-led management, some of the debtors have started paying, while some of the debts are being reconciled to determine those that are bad.

It was further disclosed that all avenues for revenue leakages have been effectively blocked by the new management.

Usman has in the last six months taken steps to ensure that operators comply with payment of all revenues collected on behalf of the government, warning seriously that no entity should collect money and keep in its coffers on behalf of the government but should immediately pay same into government coffers.

To this end, she was quoted as saying that the ports authority has put in place a standard procedure of ensuring that operators do not keep revenues collected on behalf of government.

According to Usman, any invoice or payment that requires to be done by an agent will require that the agent will give NPA the invoice and the authority will pay that agent within a stipulated time. “I think such an arrangement is in line with what we believe is enshrined in our Constitution and no entity will prevent NPA from adhering to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy, which is in compliance with the payment of all consolidated revenue as enshrined in our Constitution,” she said.

With regard to the notorious Apapa gridlock and the port access road that had been in a very bad shape, the NPA MD said: “We have concluded discussions with Dangote Group and Flour Mills and taken into consideration the need for drainage. The final draft will be submitted to the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing where the Ministry will conclude on the framework on which the road will be built. The framework that was used for Obajana will be considered and the Federal Ministry Works (FMW) will communicate this to the public once it is done. We have also discussed extensively on Creek Road and other roads within Apapa into the 2017 budget. The Minister has confirmed that these items will be in the 2017 budget and they will be constructed within that period.

“In addition to the challenges we have noted is the need for holding bays and the trailer garages. The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing has also affirmed that the trailer park will be built in Tin Can Island. The completion of the project is also within the 2017 budget and they will be constructed within that period,” she said.

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Also, as the 2017 fiscal year sets rolling, Usman said the ports authority will, this year, ensure rapid renewal of port facilities and equipment that are required and contained within the concession agreement to be upgraded. She said on the part of the concessionaires, they are required to build and improve on the facilities they met on ground, saying, “this is one of the things we will be reviewing within the concession agreement. The ports authority is determined to fulfil its own obligation by deploying necessary infrastructure, which have been provided for in our 2017 budget.

“We are increasing the percentage of our capital provision over what we had in 2016. We have defined modalities for placement of our infrastructure and we have budgeted appropriately for that. All the items we do not have, like tugboats, have been quoted for procurement and then we will develop Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework for maintaining them,” she explained.

We have captured as much as we can in our capital budget just to strengthen deployment of infrastructure within our budgetary provision and to reduce expenditure as it were.”

According to her, the right facilities have been put in place at the various ports to absorb the anticipated cargo surge. She added that all terminal operators were ready to take up the challenge.

“Our operators are very much ready to take on additional cargoes that would come following the restriction of imported vehicles through the land borders. The Nigerian ports are ready to take on the expected increased traffic. We believe the ban is a step in the right direction because we feel there is a need for us to enhance and sustain importation and earn more revenue.”

She further disclosed that as a member of the presidential anti-corruption committee, the committee will have a strong footing in the ports, even as all corrupt practices that have worked against trade facilitation in the past and unofficially increased port cost will be rooted out to make the Nigerian port competitive. According to her, the new NPA management has in this regard sent experts to the ports along the West African coast to compile their tariff to enable the management arrive at a reasonable tariff that will be competitive.

She also said, “we have had interactions with sister agencies, we are also working with the Presidential Committee on Ease of Doing Business, which is led by the Vice President. This committee has provided platforms for various agencies of government; we will continue the synergy under the ambit of that committee.

On the move to digitalise NPA operations, she said the CCIS has been very useful and providing the organisation with data on security on location of vessels, adding “we have linked it with our payment platforms, not fully effective yet but we are working to see how the command and control will be linked to capturing the revenues and also having the exact revenues attributable to the command and control centre.”