Lagos – The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is to partner with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on news dissemination to manage its reputation.
The General Manager, Public Affairs, Capt Iheanacho Ebubeogu, stated this during a courtesy visit to NAN Lagos office on Monday.
He said that coming to NAN would rejuvenate the relationship between the two organisations.
“We have to buy into the activities of NAN to tell the Nigerian public what we are doing, ’’ Ebubeogu said.
He explained that to improve on efficiency, NPA decided to concede the cargo handling aspect of its job to concessionaires in the spirit of Public Private Partnership (PPP).
“It is tremendously improving port operations and we have the residual function of regulating the concessionaires.
“We also take liabilities should anything be wrong with port operations.
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“The ports run by NPA are Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS) ports; because we play host to safety conventions on ships engaged in coastal and international trade,’’ NAN quotes Ebubeogu as saying.
He said that the mode of operations of NPA was governed by international standards which were translated into safety of navigation.
According to him, NPA also ensures maritime security, perfection of marine environment, safe movement of vessels, raise revenue and address any contingency arising from emergency.
“The ports wear two caps as border posts and as nodal points.
`We use such places (ports) to carry out fiscal laws, health and immigration regulation.
“As nodal point, for maritime logistics, the ports authority regulates ship owners, shipping companies and others, ’’ the general manager said.
In his speech, The Director and Head of Lagos office, Mr Joe Bankole, said that NAN paid a lot of attention to quality of news, legality of news, authenticity and structural compliance with modern grammar.
He said that NAN as the main distributor of news served several clients.
“We tried to sectionalise the editorial department (desks) to have greater grasp of issues at stake.
The director said that over the years, the agency zeroed in on major beats.
Bankole said that the major beats had now broken down into Maritime, Health and Gender; Agric and Environment, Education, Tourism, Political, Entertainment and Lifestyle, Science and Technology as well as Defence and Security.
He said the Maritime desk was carved out of the Economic desk because of the importance attached to the maritime sector of the economy.
Bankole said the agency regularly kept clients abreast of the Daily Shipping Position emanating from NPA, adding that the story was of special interest to shippers.
He said that in its revenue drive, NAN could at reasonable rate make available its Media Centre to NPA and other operators.
Bankole said the Media Centre could also contain 500 to 1,000 people at a time.
He said that NAN also “has the NAN Bizcom which trains military, paramilitary officers and other government officials on Public Relations, especially on how to write good Press Releases’’.
The director said that media officials of NPA should also key into such training.
He said that NAN would continue to support the activities of NPA. (NAN)