The Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Usman, on Wednesday said that the port concession agreement would be reviewed.
Usman said this in Calabar, Cross River State 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 Limited, Ecomarine Terminals and Shoreline Logistic Limited.
She said the review of the concession agreement would have to be carried out in order to put all players on the same page.
Usman 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 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.
Twenty-six terminals across the country’s major ports were concessioned in 2006 by both the NPA and the Bureau of Public Enterprises.
The General Manager, ECM Terminals Limited, Kingsley Iheanacho, said the terminal no longer earned revenue from yard operations.
Iheanacho said container vessels and clearing agents were not coming to the port.
Iheanacho said the terminal was just barely managing to remain afloat and operating skeletal services.
He said: “Presently, we are having 25 per cent utilisation and that is what Calabar port is all about.”
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, Oluseyi Ogundele, said the port management and the General Manager, Eastern Ports had been engaging stakeholders on how to boost container traffic in the port.
Ogundele recalled that when he assumed duty in September 2015, he inherited some challenges, which included the relocation of passenger boat operations from the National Inland Waterways Authority jetty to shoreline terminal.
Ogundele also spoke about the problems of power supply and congestion along the port access road.
He said: “Today, passenger boat operation is running smoothly at shoreline logistics terminal, public power supply had been restored and the heavy traffic gridlock along the port access road has been contained.
“Again, through the initiative of local port management, the wreckage of a ship, Hope of ECOWAS, which has been a long-standing limitation to port operation, has been removed.
“Other wreck such as Cala Niger is also on the verge of being removed.”
Ogundele said other challenges confronting the port management include completion of the dredging of the Calabar channel and provision of modern equipped tugs and pilot cutters.
Ogundele also called for guaranteed security in the port and its channels.
He complained about erosion menace within the port and at Harbour Village and the bad state of the common user roads within the concessioned terminals and the entire port.
On revenue in the first half of the year, the port manager said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is indebted to NPA to the tune of N152.8 million.
He said from January to June 2016, the port generated N450.9 and $7.5 million, while N106.9 million and $6.2 million were collected in the same period of 2015.
According to Ogundele, in the first half 2016, vessels entered the port with 1.8 million tonnes against 165 vessels with 2.1 million tonnes in the corresponding period of 2015.
He said this showed 30.91 per cent increase in vessel traffic and 15.1 per cent decrease in Gross Registered Tonnage.
“A total of 1.0 million tonnes of cargo was handled during the first half in the port compared to 1.1 million tonnes recorded in the same period of 2015, indicating 10.29 per cent decrease,” he added.