The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)says it will tighten it noose against terminal operators operating at the Tin-Can Island and Apapa Port in other to make them take on major responsibilities in port infrastructure development and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
This is as it announced the expiration of concession agreements between the federal government and five terminal operators operating at the nation\u2019s seaport.<\/p>\n
Speaking in a chat with newsmen in Lagos, the managing director, NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, disclosed that the terminal operators whose lease agreement have expired include; ENL Consortium, operator of terminal C and D, at the Lagos ports complex, Apapa; Josepdam Port Service Limited, operator of terminal 1, 1a and 2; Port and Cargo, operator of terminal 6,7,7a, 8 and Five Star Logistics Ltd, operator of terminal 9 and 10 at the Tin-Can Island Port and AMS Terminal, Delta state.<\/p>\n
However, the NPA MD said, the federal government will secure commitment from terminal operators whose lease agreement have expired and others on the rehabilitation of the dilapidated and decayed port infrastructure.<\/p>\n
According to him, the government have extended the lease agreement by another six months, and working on a new agreement on development of key infrastructure and decayed infrastructure.<\/p>\n
He said that the authority had started working on the rehabilitation of port infrastructure with the right marine equipment in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have very old ports, one of the major problems is the decayed infrastructure; TinCan Island is practically collapsing and so we decided to focus our budget toward the rehabilitation of key ones.<\/p>\n
What we have done was to start talking to lending agencies, we have started talking to terminal operators who have operated within 10 to 15 years that their leases are about to expire, on how much they will put back.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor their leases to be renewed, they need to contribute to the development of the ports. If they don\u2019t, we will give them to someone or borrow for them to be rehabilitated. But the rates to be paid will go up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t do that they will keep managing those places,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cthere are five concession agreement that have expired and each of them have different dates, but at the point of expiration, the then legal agreement said they can apply and they will just renew. But, unfortunately, after the concession agreement the Infrastructure Commission Regulatory Commission (ICRC), act came up and the ICRC act required that there should be a new tender and a bid.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see that there is a conflict and the minister said, incidentally these terminals are in the worse state, what are they going into now is that NPA requested their development plans and we had to go to ICRC to get certification and so on and so forth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough, they have been given temporary extention of six months and the essence is to ensure that the right things are being done here and that we have value for money because today, if we ask people to bid, the new bidders will naturally pay NPA higher than what the current operators are paying and we know that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have said we should meet on the table and let\u2019s reach an agreement that is firm, an agreement that hold them responsible because in the former agreement, before I as MD of NPA or any of my colleagues can go into the terminal, you have to give them 2 weeks notice even if we are going for inspection purposes. We agree that this agreement are due for renewal and that is being worked on and they will be renewed as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The MD while speaking, also disclosed that the Apapa, Tin-Can Island, Eastern Ports among others are old and collapsing but, the authority needs to rehabilitate those failing ports, as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
According to him, that was the reason they needed commitment from the terminal operators on their development plans, but if they reneged and the authority sought money from international organizations, the operators will pay more in lease agreement.<\/p>\n
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The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)says it will tighten it noose against terminal operators operating at the Tin-Can Island and Apapa Port in other to make them take on major responsibilities…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n