The Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA) has grossed a princely sum of N299.56billion as generated revenue for 2017 fiscal year.
According to a statement signed by Abdullahi Goje, the General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communication of the agency, the 2017 revenues exceeded the 2016 figure of N162.20bn by 84.65 percent and is the highest generated by the authority in the past five years.
Goje declared that in 2013, the NPA generated the sum of N154.50bn which increased to N159.30bn and N180.50bn in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
‘’ The authority’s revenue however dropped to N162.20bn in 2016’’, the NPA spokesman stated.
However, the 2017 figure declared by the agency is made up of revenues from “traffic,” “harbours,”“administrative” and “others” sources in the sum of N136.04bn, N66.80bn, N86.06bn and N10.75bn respectively.
The declaration of the agency’s annual revenue profile was in fulfillment of the pledge of Hadiza Usman, the Managing Director of the NPA that she would be declaring the revenue profile of the agency from time to time and that the budget of the authority would be make public for appraisal.
Meanwhile, Hadiza Bala Usman has informed Stakeholders and Port Users of the renewed vigour and determination of agency at improving the present state of infrastructure to meeting world class standards towards ensuring the swift evacuation of cargo from the seaports across the country to the hinterlands through the rail lines.
According to her, NPA was fully aware of the state of congestion in the Ports caused by the bad roads within the Port axis which she regretted has led to a reduction in revenue accruable to the organisation as well as the inability of the nation to maximize her potential as a major player in the Maritime sector within the Sub-Saharan Africa.
Hadiza represented by the General Manager MD’s Office, Captain Iheanacho Ebubeogu made these remarks while on a facility maintenance inspection of the state of the rail lines in the Ports accompanied by the top echelon of the Nigerian Railway Corporation[NRC] led by its Director OfOperations ,Niyi Alli, to Terminals within the Apapa corridor over the weekend.
‘’ Management would collaborate and improve on the existing synergy with the NRC at addressing the challenges facing the Corporation with a view to increasing the market size of the country in the area of Cargo evacuation ‘’, the NPA MD pledged.
The Director Operations, Nigerian Railway Corporation [NRC] Mr Niyi Alli who stood in for the Managing Director of the Corporation Mr Fidet Okhiria stated that the working visit was to assess the present state of the rail lines in order to further collaborate with the NPA in the area of rehabilitation.
According to Alli, the rail service would be optimally utilized for Cargo evacuation in line with the Federal Government’s policy of Ease of Doing Business in the country. He stated that plans are being concluded by putting into operation between 15- 20 Locomotive Wagons with each evacuating 20 units of 40 footer container at a go from the Terminals to the hinterland.
It would be recalled the Honorable Minister of Transportation ,Rotimi Amaechi, recently instituted a Committee comprising the Managing Directors of NPA and NRC as well as their top echelon to carry out on the spot assessment of the present state of infrastructure of the rail lines in the Terminals. It is expected that the rehabilitations would further go a long way towards the swift evacuation of Cargo from the Ports.