President of the Ship Owners Association of Nigeria, Mkgeorge Oyung, has disclosed that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) was losing a whopping sum of $41bn daily as a result of inefficient management of the maritime sector in the country.
Speaking at the public hearing on Nigerian Economic Diversification Bill 2022, Oyung lamented that NPA was making a total of $2m instead of $43bn as daily revenue, adding that shipping is the biggest business in the world; if Nigeria should pay attention to it.
He said, “Shipping is 90% of global trends and as far as the world is concerned, nothing moves and nothing goes on without shipping and like I mentioned, without shipping, there is no shopping.
“NPA makes $2m a day by their revenue, whereas it is an industry where it is $43bn a day; $1.8bn an hour and $30m a minute. NPA is making $2m a day, it means something must give way and my suggestion is that we should relocate Ajegunle.”
The SOAN president noted that the ports are functional but the poor management of the ports and lack of diversification have continued to inhibit the optimization of NPA.
Oyung said, “All ports are functioning; the constraints of the ports are a matter of congestion due to poor port management.
“I am not trying to indict anybody but the fact that you have to manage the ships that come and make sure that the ships that come are producing and discharging and you don’t delay them at the port because the ship comes to the port, it doesn’t dwell.
“It is supposed to be very controlled. However, in our port, especially Apapa port, it is so congested that the roads are not the only problem and of course what needs to be done, I have suggested. On other ports, they are bound by infrastructure decay, they are bound by the fact that they are not being utilised.”