Calabar -The Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Usman, on Wednesday said that the port concession agreement would be reviewed.
Usman said this in Calabar at the commencement of a three-day facility tour of the Calabar port.
The managing director went on tour of concessioned facilities such as : Intels Logistics Services Nigeria Ltd, Ecomarine Terminals and Shoreline Logistic Ltd.
She said that the review of the concession agreement would have to be carried out in order to put all players on the same page.
The managing director expressed concern that there have been violations of some of the terms of the concession agreements..
She spoke against the backdrop of many complaints by concessionaires in the port.
Usman said that the concession agreement should be adhered to.
All the three major operators in the port lamented over inactivity, saying that they were experiencing 25 per cent capacity utilisation in the port.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 26 terminals across the country’s major ports were concessioned in 2006 by both NPA and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
The General Manager, ECM Terminals Ltd, Mr Kingsley Iheanacho, said that the terminal no longer earned revenue from yard operations.
He said that container vessels and clearing agents were not coming to the port.
Iheanacho said that the terminal was just barely managing to remain afloat and operating skeletal services.
“Presently, we are having 25 per cent utilisation and that is what Calabar port is all about,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes him as saying.
He lamented that the management of the terminal spent a lot of money monthly to maintain equipment.
“We were assured dredging would be completed by December 2006 but this has not been done,’’ Iheanacho said.
Welcoming the new managing director, the Port Manager of Calabar Port, Mr Oluseyi Ogunbdele, said the port management and the General Manager, Eastern Ports, had been engaging stakeholders on how to boost container traffic in the port.
He recalled that when he assumed duty in Sept. 2015, he inherited some challenges ranging from the relocation of passenger boat operations from the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) jetty to shoreline terminal.
Ogundele also spoke about the problems of power supply and con