LAGOS –
The last four years have been very productive for the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, Managing Director of the Authority has said.
She made the submission on Tuesday while speaking during a programme on TVC monitored in Lagos.
Ms Bala Usman, said the NPA under her watch has increased its revenue generation and remittance to the consolidated revenue fund from N18 billion to N30 billion.
The NPA boss said, “The consolidated revenue fund has been the highest the NPA has ever made.
“Our revenue generation has increased, our contribution to the consolidated revenue fund has been the highest the Nigerian ports have ever made.
“In other areas, I would speak to our contributions to the Consolidated Revenue Funds (CRF). When we inherited it, we had a contribution of about N18 billion, but we remitted N30 billion in 2017, N30 billion in 2018.
“These are clear differentials since my joining Nigerian ports. If you look at an N18-billion contribution to CRF, and then a N30-billion contribution, you can see that there is a huge difference.
“So it has been a very productive four years for the Nigerian Ports and for the country as a whole.
“The revenue generating agency has risen up to the challenge and has increased its contribution and also increased operational efficiency,” she said.
The managing director however lamented absence of deep seaports, assuring that her administration would work with the NPA board to ensure the deep seaports are made available soon.
Her words, “We expect the board to push for our ports to become as competitive as required and ensure that we drive attendant reforms.
“We also expect the completion of ongoing deep seaport projects because one of the things that make Nigerian Ports not to be competitive is the absence of deep seaports, which provides depth of 16 meters and allow for economy of scale.
“This is where the industry is going now, and we are going to work with the new board to ensure that the deep seaport projects are concluded within a timely manner.”
On her experience so far as NPA boss, she had this to say:
“It has been very interesting and challenging in some instances but overall, it has been a very fruitful journey. We have seen Nigerian ports move above some bounds.”
