Improving the turnaround time of vessels and reducing cargo dwell time are critical factors to attract higher volume of vessels to the ports.
Also key to the maritime sector is for the country to harness the opportunities that neighbouring landlocked countries have.
The Acting Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello-Koko, stated this at the opening of the Strategic Management Retreat for NPA workers in Lagos at the weekend
According to him, with the world as a global village, the need to attract larger vessels and benefit from the economies of scale that come with them could not be overemphasised.
This is why the efforts to have deep seaports in Lekki, Badagry and Ibom, among others, were steps in the right direction, he said.
He said this is why NPA is scaling up its responsibility of dredging channels to berth vessels of reasonable sizes, while encouraging the use of Flat Bottom Vessels (FBV) in areas with low draught in the interim.
He said: “As an Authority that is poised to create and sustain competitive advantage by offering best-in-class port operations, a meeting of minds of this nature to strategise and craft smart actionable steps towards assuring the growth, competitiveness and future readiness of our port system is germane. The Authority under this management is being positioned for greater efficiency, safety and accountability. These are the essential factors that determine our prospects and capacity to garner greater market shares.”
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Bello-Koko listed the efforts being made at making the ports viable to include infrastructural renewal and expansion; the introduction of barge operations, automation of transit (e-call up); improvement in the sources of revenue and collections; plugging income leakages, reducing overhead costs and elimination of monopolistic conduct.
Others, he said, include the formulation and implementation of policies aimed at incentivising patronage of the Eastern Ports; encouragement of competition; keeping up with the dictates of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) and Fiscal Responsibility Act; compliance with international best practices, elimination of red tape and employment morale and capacity building.
“The Authority’s vision of becoming the leading port in Africa is achievable, but we must never forget the seminal words of organisational behaviour because a vision without a strategy remains an illusion. We must, therefore, go beyond rhetoric to churn out implementable strategies aimed at making us equal to the exigencies of the very competitive age and sector that we operate in,” Bello-Koko added.
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