Former NPA Boss, Sarumi Calls for Review of Port Concession Agreement

By ZION Olalekan |

Former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Chief Adebayo Babatunde Sarumi has called on the present management of the authority led by Hadiza Bala Usman to carry out a review of the port concession agreement signed in 2006.

Sarumi stated this at the Taiwo Afolabi Annual Maritime (TAAM) Conference which held at the weekend at the JF ADE Ajayi auditorium of the University of Lagos.

Theme of the conference was; Port Costs and Port Charges: A recurring Decimal under port reforms regime.

Sarumi who supervised the port reforms in 2006 revealed that as at the time of signing the agreement, there were lots of interference political interference and pressure from the government at the time.

He lamented that interference from the government led to the existing monopoly in cargo handled by each terminal operator till date.

The former NPA boss has however charged the management of the authority to review the exercise with a view to ensuring competition and fair playing ground among all operators.

“Government is not the proper person to run port operations, it is a business for the private operators and such concerns the producer and consumer of the services”

“When I handed over the container terminal to AP molar, the only container crane that I had there was bought in 1978, and had refused to work for ten years before we handed over, we couldn’t even get as crane that can lift container from the ship to the ground, but APMT imported 10 cranes from port Elizabeth to Apapa port and improved the situation”

“When the terminal operators came in, they saw another lacuna, the lacuna they saw was that, it was as if NPA monopolistic as we were; we handed over monopoly to another monopoly, so monopoly shifted position”

“One of the scenes I heard was where a terminal operator, ENL proposed to handle container at her terminal and it was worked out”

“But there was an order from up that every container must go to AP Mollar despite explanations he had tendered”

“Because there is no competition, everybody now does what he likes, the terminal operators do what they like in their area, I do hope that when the NPA is reviewing what we did in our time, they should find ways of bringing competition into terminal operation” he stated

Presenting the conference lecture, Chairman of Port Consultative Council, Otunba Kunle Folarin highlighted strategies to reduce port cost in Nigeria. According to him there is need for a deliberate government policy to reduce customs duties and taxes, and set up effective and efficient single window platform

Other suggestions he made was for the creation of a port community system as a framework for stakeholders’ dialogue to improve service quality and reduce costs. Folarin also advised on the need to encourage Public Private Partnership in port business, investment in modern facilities and IT enablers and providing good quality human resources.