From right: Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola and Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko at the sidelines of the 33rd General Assembly of the International Maritime Organisation IMO in London.

As part of measures to improve the efficiency of Nigeria’s existing seaports, the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA will be investing $1.1 billion to fully rehabilitate decaying port infrastructure across most of the seaports in the country.

Available records show that some of these seaports were built more than a century ago and have not been rebuilt since then.

Meanwhile, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola in company of the Managing Director of the NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko has held talks with the outgoing Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation IMO, Kitack Lim on the deployment of Nigeria’s Port Community System being supervised by the IMO.

Nigeria’s delegation to the IMO 33rd General Assembly led by Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola (first right) Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajana (3rd right), MD, NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko (7th right and DG NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh (8th right), in a special session with the outgoing Secretary General of the IMO, Kitack Lim at the IMO headquarters, London.

Recall that Bello-Koko had told participants at the recently concluded Ports Management Association of West and Central Africa PMAWCA Annual Conference and Managing Directors’ Roundtable hosted by Nigeria in Lagos, that the country’s seaports would require over $1.1billion investments to rehabilitate existing port infrastructure to make them efficient and competitive.

In a post on the verified official X handle of the NPA @nigerianports, the Authority disclosed that the government has approved the investment of $1.1billion to rehabilitate these existing port infrastructure.

The listed seaports include Tin Can Island Ports Complex, Lagos Ports Complex, Apapa, both in Lagos, Rivers Ports in Port Harcourt, Delta Port, Warri, Calabar and Onne Ports. Due to the decaying quay walls, the Terminal Operators are unable to deploy modern cargo handling equipment such as ship-to-shore cranes. This often results in high turn- around time of vessels.

Details of the rehabilitation will include the reconstruction of 2, 563m quay wall and pavement including other works at the Tin Can Island Port Complex while the rehabilitation at the Lagos Port Complex Apapa will cover the quays and the reconstruction of 2,020m quay wall to replace the old gravity wall covering berths 4-14.

Others include the rehabilitation of collapsed 8.6 km Escravos breakwaters at the Warri Ports in Delta State, reconstruction of 80m sheet pile wall structure at the Terminal C of the Warri Old Port and the reconstruction of 280m quay structure of Terminal A of the Warri Old Port as well as the reconstruction of 200m Quay Wall at the Federal Lighter Terminal FLT 2, Onne Port.

Also covered under the $1.1billion investment include the rehabilitation of the Calabar Port Dockyard Mciver Jetty and Calabar Port Jetty, Millero Jetty and Calabar Port Jetty reconstruction.

It is expected that when this is completed, the existing ports will be operational at full capacity and with improved efficiency, thereby reducing the turn -around time of vessels and cargo dwell time.

Meanwhile in a separate post on his verified X handle @MohdBelloKoko, the MD NPA said: “The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, HE, Adegboyega Oyetola, and I, along with DG NIMASA, Bashir Jamoh, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, Senate Committee Chairman on Ports and Harbours and the representative of Nigeria at the IMO, joined other industry leaders at the 33rd General Assembly of the International Maritime Organisation, IMO Assembly which is meeting at the IMO headquarters in Lagos.

“On the sidelines of the Assembly, I accompanied the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy to bilateral meetings with the Ministers of Marine Affairs of Greece, Mexico, and Qatar. We also met with the outgoing IMO Secretary General, Kitack Lim, to further strengthen and demonstrate the commitment of the NPA to deploy the Port Community System, a project being deployed under the guidance of the IMO.”