By Godfrey Bivbere, Godwin Oritse & Chris OchAYI
IN a bid to further decongest the ports in Lagos and bring shipping operations closer to people in the South Eastern part of the country, the Akwa Ibom State government, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the private sector are set to construct a deep sea port at Ibang.

Disclosing this in Abuja at the Ministerial press briefing over the weekend, Minister of Transport, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman, said that the project which is a brain child of the Akwa Ibom State government is requested to partner with the NPA to meet the maritime needs of people of the state and its environs.

The minister noted that the deep sea port is in line with the policy of the Federal Government to further exploit the potentials in the nation’s waterways. This he continued, is responsible to the dredging of the River Niger and the construction of river ports along the River Niger to speed the service delivery to shippers’ across the country.

Suleiman explained that the dredging of the River Niger is almost completed as lot one, two, three, and four have been completed while work is still ongoing on lot five. He pointed out that it is the importance which the Federal Government attached to the project that led to its timely completion.

He pointed out that at completion of the river ports, government intends to concession them to ensure efficiency and effective utilization for optimum result.

He also disclosed that the ministry is committed to making the nation’s navigable channels assessible at all time and charged the private sector in the country to take full advantage of the efforts of government to open of the waterways for business.

Already, the Minister noted that transportation of cargo by barges through the River Niger has commenced, as cement was recently transport from Obajana cement factory, to Onitsha in Anambra state.

Speaking earlier, Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Labaran Mako, stressed the importance which the Federal Government places on transport sector. Mako noted that it is the above that made government pay so much attention to the rail, road and waterways sub-sector of the transport industry.

He explained that any country that does not take the issue of transportation seriously cannot develop and therefore commended President Goodluck’s government for paying much attention to the development of the sector.