BY Udeme Clement

In line with the policy of the Federal Government to fast tract economic growth and development through maximum revenue generation from the nation’s ports, the newly appointed managing director and chief executive officer, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Engineer Omar Suleiman, is putting measures in place to ensure a new policy framework capable of making the ports function optimally to ensure full capacity utilisation in the maritime industry.

Engineer Omar Suleiman

Addressing stakeholders at the official endorsement of the authority’s documents during the handing over ceremony, Suleiman said that the new management would implement the authority’s master plan and develop green field seaport terminals to ensure rapid expansion of port infrastructure. This he said would support huge inflow of cargos into the country to make the ports much more productive now and in the long-run development.

He added, “though the concession process was very fast, the initiative of government was to enhance industrial growth through efficient utilisation of resources within the nation’s ports through its reform programme. As such, the new management of NPA must ensure efficient policy frame work and restructuring of the organisation to ensure effective supervision of the activities of concessionaires operating within the ports.

We want to put appropriate structures on ground to effectively regulate what government signed with the concessionaires doing business in the ports and this would enable us to consolidate government’s concession programme to meet the expectation of government as well as stakeholders in the sector.”

To actualise its new agenda, the new NPA management has just carried out the official presentation of the Revised Conditions of Service Documents, which took place before relevant stakeholders and port users in the maritime industry. He stressed, “we realised that the former Conditions of Service reviewed last in 1994 was obsolete and accordingly revised to reflect present economic realities. It has since been reviewed and approved by the Board as a product of consultation and mutual consensus.

We believe it is capable of substantially meeting the aspiration of employees. As a result of the new legal regime on gratuity, NPA management set up a Committee to review the policy in line with the new Pension Act (PENCOM Act 2004) and in consideration of the authority’s monetised enhanced salary structure”.

Thus, it could be recalled that government displayed a strong political will by concessioning the ports to private operators with a view to enhancing buoyancy in terms of income-flow in the economy, increase in turnaround of vessels and reduced time of towage.  Also, the initiative was to win back most importers who deserted the ports before the regime of port reforms, as the Authority put a machinery in place to operate the best model port devoid of pilfering and container poaching that was the bane of the ports before concession.

However, the concession exercise affected human capital and pruned down the workforce from over 14,000 to less than 5,000 staff. But while the ports reform was a success in Nigeria , the entire process became a failure in Ghana.

Looking at ports concession toady, experts are of the opinion that Africa has become a focal point in economic development and consequently the port development, saying it would be necessary to develop new infrastructure, improve efficiency and raise overall port performance to enhance safety and security of logistics. This would boost economic growth through outputs maximisation in the maritime sector of the economy.