Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has disclosed that the Delta Ports raked in about $45.2 million between January and June 2019.
Speaking at a stakeholder’s forum, at New Port, Warri in Delta state, Chairman of NPA Board of Directors, Emmanuel Adesoye, said the revenue recorded at the port was due to a significant increase attributed to the improved security in the area.
According to document made available to newsmen, the ports authority hinted that the rise in revenue when compared to 2018’s $35.39 million, which represents a 28 percent increase, was also due to the dredging of the Escravos channel. The document also revealed that a total $2,904,377 debt was recovered within the same period, bringing the total revenue to $48,150,644.17.
Meanwhile, Adesoye said the major challenge raised during the forum was the dredging of the channel within the port to allow bigger vessels go in, but declined to give a time frame for the needed development to take place, adding that some technicalities may cause a delay.
Expressing satisfaction that there has been no recorded security breach around the Warri environment in the past two years, he called on all stakeholders, including the leadership of the host communities to continue to work with security agencies to keep the peace.
He added: “The major challenge is the issue of dredging the channels, the inner ports in the terminal here, which management has already taken action. In fact, they have called for the construction of these channels, so there is no cause for alarms. The reason I can’t give a time frame is you have the procurement cycle, sometimes you cannot determine it with any degree of accuracy.”