From left: MD/CEO, NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko and Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, His Excellency, Gboyega Oyetola CON, the duo driving Nigeria’s seaport transformation.

Totally committed to achieving the spirit and letters of the Presidential/Ministerial Performance Bond signed before the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, His Excellency, Gboyega Oyetola CON, Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko is taking steps towards consolidating on the gains recorded in 2023. This is mainly in the areas of port infrastructure renewal and automation, which are major drivers of port efficiency and competitiveness. Francis Ezem x-rays the issues.

It is no longer news that the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko last year, signed a Presidential/Ministerial performance bond, administered and supervised by the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, His Excellency, Gboyega Oyetola CON. What is probably news, is thatBello-Koko in sync with the entire management team of the NPA has kept faith with the spirit and letters of this bond.

This led to the achievement of significant and historic milestones, never experienced in Nigeria’s maritime industry, especially in terms of renewal and modernisation of port infrastructure, increased revenue returns to the Consolidated Revenue Fund CRF and acquisition of state-of –the-art harbour and marine services crafts, embarking on new and ultra-modern port facilities as well as making a quantum leap into the automation and integration of the port processes for greater efficiency. This is typified in the receipt of the report on Nigeria’s Port Community System PCS being implemented in association with the International Maritime Organisation IMO.

It was also in the course of last year that the nation’s seaports for the first time recorded an average Turn-Around-Time TAT of vessels of less than 5.16days. The TAT remains a key indicator in measuring port efficiency. Similarly, the Bello-Koko management of the NPA rejigged the Electronic Call-Up System ETO for haulage trucks operating on the port corridors. Apart from drastically reducing the turn- around time for the haulage trucks, this also brought about drastic reduction in the cost of haulage. The rejigged ETO also led to the disappearance of the erstwhile intractable Apapa gridlock, which before now crippled activities at the seaports and environs.

Speaking on some of these milestone achievements recently, Bello-Koko said: “Our effort to fully automate port operations is now coming to fruition. In 2024, we will complete the launch of an upgraded version of the Revenue Invoice Management System, RIMS 2.0, to address the shortfalls of the earlier version. The Port Community System, which is supported by the IMO will also go live this year to streamline port operations, improve data exchange and port efficiency.

“The effort to deploy VTS and harbour automation that are necessary to ensure security and safe navigation has reached advanced stage and will be deployed this year. Also in our bid to be scientific in our approach to port development, the National Ports Master plan will come into effect by June this year to guide our investment and expansion plans.”

From left: Oyetola and MD NPA, Bello-Koko (extreme right) receive the IMO report on Nigeria’s Port Community System PCS.

Additionally, the operationalisation of the Lekki Deep Seaport last year, which has also signaled the handling of larger container carriers, speaks to the high level of sophistication of the marine and harbour services capability of the NPA. This is no doubt, largely a direct fallout of the purpose-driven and result-oriented management system of the Mohammed Bello –Koko-led management.

Not resting on its oars, the NPA management is already focused on consolidating and possibly surpassing these milestones recorded in 2023. To this effect, the Bello-Koko management as early as the first quarter of 2024 set deliverables with specific timelines that would help it achieve the year’s growth projections.

For instance, in line with measures to achieve its goals for the current 2024 fiscal year and in the spirit of consolidating previous achievements on port infrastructure upgrade, modernisation and automation, Bello-Koko and his team are already holding strategic talks aimed at sourcing low-cost funds that would help it fully modernise existing port infrastructure to accommodate modern cargo handling equipment, further reduce vessel turn-around time, improve the berth occupancy factor and further boost competitiveness of the seaports.

It was in the light of this that the Bello-Koko -led management of the Authority has commenced discussions with multinational financial institutions with a view to accessing low-cost funds for infrastructure upgrade and development. Just recently, the NPA CEO and his team met with the Managing Director and Global Head of Export and Agency Finance of CitiBank, Mr. Richard Hodder, to discuss low-cost financing for Tin Can and Apapa Ports’ modernisation projects. It was gathered that the meeting was a follow-up meeting with other global reference lenders.

While assuring on the commitment of the NPA management team under his watch to keep faith with the spirit and letters of the performance bond, which revolves around making Nigeria’s seaports more efficient and competitive, the NPA MD said: “We will continue to weigh different options for financing the port modernisation programme to revamp our port infrastructure and superstructures for competitive advantage in the region.”

It was therefore in a bid to achieve these deliverables that the NPA recently announced an ambitious $1billion reconstruction plan for the Tin Can Island Port Complex as well as the comprehensive rehabilitation of Apapa, Rivers, Onne, Warri and Calabar Ports Complexes.

BUSINESS & TRANSPORT checks indicate that the Authority has equally earmarked for similar reconstruction, under the new ports development plan, the Badagry Deep Seaport, Snake Island both in Lagos as well as the Burutu Port in Delta and Ondo Deep Seaports.

Other initiatives introduced towards enhancing Nigeria’s port competitiveness include but not limited to the emplacements of the Port Community System PCS and the National Single Window. This is a strong indication that the NPA management under Bello-Koko is poised to transforming the Authority’s strategic intent of being the maritime logistics hub for sustainable port services in Africa from potential to actualities.

According to a document entitled: ‘Consolidation of superior performance at the Nigerian Ports Authority 2023-A synopsis of the NPA’s performance improvement 2022-2023’, the management believes that despite the global economic downturn that characterised year 2023, the Bello-Koko-led management was able to leapfrog Nigeria’s foremost trade facilitation platform to surpass its sterling performance in year 2022.

“The implementation of performance improvement measures resulted in unprecedented revenue generation and remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund CRF of the Federation, with revenues steadily growing from N361billion in 2022 to N501billion at the close of business in December 2023. Remittances increased from N93.4 billion in 2022 to N131.2 billion by year end 2023”, the document said.

It further captured taxes paid to the Government of the Federation, which grew at various times in the period under review, totaling $77.7 million and N17.6 billion respectively.

Available statistics show that NPA contributed to the deepening of Nigeria’s balance of trade through the promotion of exports of especially non-oil export in response to the urgent need of the government to strengthen the country’s currency, the naira.

Meanwhile, the management said that as part of measures to create new businesses and promote multi-modal transport system in line with global best practice as prescribed by the International Association for Ports and Harbours IAPH, the NPA initiated barge operations services. This initiative, apart from reducing pressure on the roads, has also grown into a N2billion annual revenue generation business both from direct and indirect investments.

According to the management, “Movement of cargo by barge has greatly enhanced port-hinterland connectivity as evidenced by the meteoric rise in the volume of consignments moved using barges from 80,244 twenty equivalents units TEUs in 2022 to 118,046 TEUs in 2023.

“The NPA during the period under review licensed 10 Export Processing Terminals to facilitate exports at Nigeria’s seaports.

“This initiative, which provided a one-stop- shop for export processing where quality control, cargo assessment and statutory checks by all government agencies are carried out, was geared towards eliminating all bureaucracies and attendant delays that hitherto undermined the competitiveness of Nigeria’s non-oil exports in the international market place.

“The resultant effect of this initiative, is a quantum leap in the number of Nigerian export-laden containers from 156,790 TEUs in 2022, to 226,456 TEUs in 2023.”

Statistics also show that the NPA under Bello-Koko has grown ship calls at the various seaports in the country. This is sequel to the consistent dredging of channels, installation of buoys and improved security on the ports’ channels.

For instance, the number of ship calls grew from 1,997 vessels in 2022 to 2,179 vessels as at December 2023.  Records also show that the Lekki Deep Sea Port, which is the country’s first fully automated port at take-off, processed 6,076 TEUs of transshipment cargo within the review period.

The astronomic rise in transshipment cargo signposts NPA’s readiness to cater for the shipping needs of landlocked African neighbours. It also represents ‘win back cargo’ hitherto lost to our maritime neighbours.

While reacting to these milestone achievements, the NPA management said: “To maximise the distinctive advantage of economies of scale that the Lekki Deep Seaport with its capacity to berth Super Post Panamax vessels, NPA in 2023 acquired and deployed two units of first-of-its-kind in Africa Azimuth Stern Drive ASD 8213 model 80 Ton Bollard Pull Tugboats to enable the berthing of very large vessels of 300 metres LOA and above.”

The management also stated that Authority has sustained its revenue performance, during the period under review, by looking beyond the sole dependence on earnings from core port operations.

It said that the Authority had set Public Private Partnership PPP modalities in motion to derive revenue from Ports Independent Power Production, Bunkering Stations, Fallow Lands for Logistics, Fresh Water Provision and Ship Repairs and Maintenance and to insulate its income from leakages, even as the Authority had firmed up its Revenue Invoice Management System (RIMs) to the cutting edge version of RIMs 2.0.

The management also disclosed that the Authority collaborated with the NLNG Ship Management Limited to deploy the Vessel Traffic Service VTS to complement the newly-equipped control towers across its locations in order to assure stakeholders of its domain awareness capacity for enhanced security and in response to emergent threats and vulnerabilities.

Only recently, the Bello-Koko –led management of the NPA led the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola to commission the 4.8km road and Marine craft at Onne Port, Rivers State as part of measures to drive vessel traffic to the Eastern Ports.

“Deepening efficiencies and full capacity utilisation of the Eastern Ports constitutes one of the tools deployed to achieve the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) assigned to the ministry under the Presidential Performance Bond.

“The Onne and Calabar Port Complexes have met the requirements of the International Organisation for Standardisation and are ISO certified and the newly commissioned mooring boats would further enhance the security and safety at the Eastern Ports.

“Providing enabling environment for investors to patronise the Eastern Ports is top priority of the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry. Therefore, this road infrastructure constructed by the Nigerian Ports Authority and the mooring boats we are gathered here to commission, is another testament to the commitment of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy under my watch to maximise the entire gamut of opportunities conferred on us by our maritime endowments, in line with the directives of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

“The Mooring Boats are used to safety berth and unberth vessels calling at various pilotage districts. These six Mooring Boats is our own way of further enhancing the security and safety of our maritime space”, the Minister said.

Oyetola, who commended the NPA for these giant strides said: “”I have been briefed on the growth in numbers especially of exports emanating from Onne Ports Complex, and I am impressed and poised to provide the facilitation and advocacy required to grow the vessel traffic to this important nucleus of growth.

“Although issues concerning the potential of Onne have always dominated my correspondences with the NPA, I must say that this visit further convinces me that so much more can be achieved if we invest more in our port infrastructure such as we are doing with the over $1billion worth of reconstruction/rehabilitation investment in our ports including Onne, which is at its conclusive stage.

“I want to seize this occasion to commend the management of NPA for the prudent application of resources that financed this project and to reiterate my earlier commitment to grant prompt approvals to initiatives that enable continuous improvement in the performance of our ports.”

It is therefore evident that the management of the NPA under Mohammed Bello-Koko has not only shown the zeal to live up to the letters and spirit of the Performance Bond but has also undoubtedly shown sufficient capacity to sustain and even surpass the big gains recorded in port infrastructure renewal, automation in the previous years and therefore needs everyone’s support.