Eromosele Abiodun
Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr Abubakar Dantsoho yesterday in London showcased President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s maritime insurance policies stressing that ports in Africa’s greatest financial system are craving for international funding.
He affirmed that the velocity of progress and improvement within the nation’s ports signifies the large alternatives traders ought to faucet into including that the present administration has put insurance policies in place which are funding pleasant.
Addressing a choose group of maritime traders from throughout the globe on the ongoing World Ports Conference, Dantsoho recognized Nigeria’s big inhabitants, urbanisation, and infrastructural gaps within the ports as engaging alternatives for funding in its maritime and related sectors.
Dantsoho, who’s the Vice- President of the International Association of Ports & Harbours (IAPH) and doubles as Chairman of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA) advised traders that Africa’s untapped assets stay the perfect vacation spot for ports funding and improvement.
He stated authorities alone can’t fund improvement of larger or deeper sea ports and different comparable initiatives therefore the necessity for traders to reap the benefits of such alternatives throughout the continent.
According to him, “Nigeria at independence in 1960 had a inhabitants of 45 million individuals. Today, about 60 years later, there are greater than 260 million individuals. The funding wanted in ports to satisfy this growth and progress can solely occur if the requisite personal funding is attracted and retained which is what President Tinubu has created the enabling environment for.
“In Nigeria, we identified that infrastructure gap especially in our ports’ development, and we realized that we must do something quickly, both in terms of the capacity to receive bigger vessels for import, and also the capacity to move higher numbers of cargo for export.”
He added, “Again, it is important to note that the development or growth or expansion in the area of infrastructure is capital intensive. So, the governments in both West Africa and generally in Africa have realized that the government cannot fund development of bigger or deeper sea ports, hence the need for your investment to move speedily into Africa.”
“Nigeria have the very best inhabitants in Africa. So, the velocity of progress is one thing that actually ought to concern us. For instance, in Nigeria, solely lately, about 3 years in the past, we commissioned the primary deep sea port in Nigeria, which is known as Lekki Deep Sea Port, that was funded by the Chinese authorities in relationship with China Harbor, and the expenditure value us $1.6 billion to construct Lekki in Lagos.
“But as of today, just about 3 years later, the capacity of the new deep-sea port that is Lekki has been exhausted. So, which means that clearly, we need more capacity to be able to contain the volumes. And for us as Port Authority, we are happy that we are capturing more of the cargo, the volumes are going up, because that is the only way that we can also increase our value, the revenue that we expect to make from these transactions.”
He added, “It is important to say that now, in terms of traffic, most of the cargo that comes to West Africa definitely ends in Nigeria market. And that’s for obvious reasons. The population of Ghana is 34 million. Population of Côte d’Ivoire is 32 million. Population of Togo is 9 million. Population of Benin Republic 14 million. So, most of the cargoes that come, mostly from China in this case, will end up in Nigerian market.”
