At the last week’s House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee Public hearing, the Nigeria Ports Authority was fingered as being responsible for the underutilisation of eastern ports, reports MUYIWA LUCAS.
The port reform agenda was well thought out, or so it seemed. Therefore, when the Federal Government opted to concession the ports in 2006, it was heralded as one initiative that would make the seaports more efficient, effective and attract more cargoes.
Obviously taking pride in the growth that followed this process, in terms of cargo inflow, resulting in an all-time high of 84.9 million metric tonnes in 2014, the sharp slump in cargo inflow throughput to the lowest volume of 35.9 million metric tonnes in 2018 left many wondering as to the type of economic growth this was. Certainly, this development was an anti-climax for an industry that is regarded as having the capability to compete with the oil sector in terms of revenue generation.
Lagos Ports at breaking point
The failure to achieve at least an average capacity utilisation of the eastern ports, has no doubt contributed to the hardship being experienced in Lagos ports of Apapa and Tin Can. This perhaps explains why the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, described the two port complexes as being “overwhelmed and attained breaking points.”
Gbajabiamila regretted that the Lagos ports were overstretched beyond their capacities and needed the support of other ports for ease of doing business. However, for various reasons, the Speaker’s dream of the eastern ports complementing Lagos ports may, for the time being, remain mere wishful thinking.
Capacity, dredging issues, and blame game
For many, the question to be asked, is “why the inland port complexes in Warri, Calabar, Onitsha, Port Harcourt and Onne failed to provide alternative or even consummate services to aid decongestion of the Lagos ports complexes?”
A stakeholder in the industry of over 25 years blamed the situation on some of the concessionaires, who he accused of not having the capacity to attract growth to the port con-cessioned to them. The stakeholder, who craved for anonymity, said the concession agreements needed to be made more open for stakeholders to see and understand so as to know when and where anyone is acting in breach. He further revealed that aside shallow depths, concessionaires made no move to open talks with shippers on why their ports should be used.
The source further revealed that lack of critical equipment for cargo handling is the bane of ports in the East.
Besides, the NPA was also accused of being a landlord, operator and regulator, whereas no one regulates the authority in its dealings with concessionaires. The source said the NPA, through its failure to fulfil the government’s aspect of the concession agreement, such as maintaining common use facilities — access roads, power, pilotage — and other responsibilities, has made operation a difficult one for concessionaires.
He said with the global industry embracing bigger vessels with capacity for carrying 20,000 Tonnes Equivalent Unit (TEU) containers, at once, there was an urgent need for the constant clearing of the water channels and dredging to accommodate such bigger vessels. Wrecks in the belly of waters leading to eastern ports have been impeding navigation along that area.
“It is sad that despite the reported increased revenue by the NPA, the authority has not done much in the area of dredging for ease of navigation. Contracts awarded by NPA were given to incompetent firms on the grounds of suspected political patronage and some have led to ongoing litigation, “ the source said.
Mr. Christian Holm, managing director of Hull Blyth Nigeria Limited, agreed that Nigeria seaports lacked the capacity to handle bigger vessels because of infrastructure decay. He said the ports were far from being modernised and incapable of accommodating bigger vessels and process cargoes in good time, noting that poorly-developed ports would attract smaller vessels and increase cost of shipping.
But NPA Managing Director Ms Hadiza Bala-Usman said the authority had dredged Escravos Channel leading to Delta ports from 3.4 to seven meters to accommodate bigger vessels.
Represented at the public hearing by the NPA Executive Director in charge of Engineering and Technical Services, Idris Abubakar, an engineer, Ms Usman said the Escravos Channel was last dredged 35 years ago before her administration embarked on it.
She further revealed that aside reduction in terminal charges to encourage patronage of the ports, her administration had embarked on corporate social responsibility to alleviate the plights of host communities and encourage entrepreneurship. She told the lawmakers that the distances from fairway buoys in eastern ports were much longer than that of Lagos ports and would require vessels in eastern ports to deploy more fuel and spend more time before berthing. Ms Usman added that the breakwater in Warri Port had given way while roads leading to the ports in various parts of the country required attention of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
The many troubles of eastern ports
But for the President, Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria, Paul Ogbuokiri, the underutilisa-tion of the eastern ports has, to a large extent, become a disadvantage to the gains the country ought to reap from the port concession programme. He regretted that the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports had been experiencing traffic congestion due to increasing cargo throughput, occasioned by the 2006 port reform carried out by the Federal Government. Ogbuokiri submitted that inactivity and or underutilisation of the five seaports and the Ontisha River Port that make up the eastern ports was the reason for the over utilisation of Lagos seaports.
In his paper at the public hearing, Ogbuokiri noted that if the eastern ports, comprising Warri Port and Koko Port (otherwise known as Delta Ports Complex); Port Harcourt Port, Onne Port and Calabar Port and the Ontisha River Port, were fully functional, there wouldn’t be gridlock, logistics-cum cargo congestion at Lagos ports.
He said it was worthy to note that the Nigerian Civil War, government preference of Lagos ports for the importation of certain goods, insurgency-cum host community sabotage and past NPA management’s lip-service to dredging port channels and upgrading of old port infrastructure were key factors that had made it impossible for the country to maximise the use of eastern ports.
“So, as the names of the eastern ports are different, so are their challenges; some related, some unrelated,” Ogbuokiri noted.
He is right. The eastern ports, after the port concession in 2006, consist of 15 terminals: Port Harcourt Terminal A, concessioned to Ports & Terminal Operators Nigeria Limited; Port Harcourt Terminal B, concessioned to Bua Ports & Terminals Limited; Onne FOT A, concessioned to Intels Nigeria Limited; Onne FLT A, concessioned to Brawal Oil Services Limited; Onne FLT B, concessioned to Intels Nigeria Limited; Jetty FOT, Onne; conces-sioned to Atlas Cement Company Limited; Calabar New Terminal A, concessioned to Intels Nigeria Limited; Calabar New Terminal B, concessioned to Ecomarine; Calabar New Terminal C, concessioned to Addax Logistics Nigeria Limited; Warri Old Terminal A, concessioned to Intels Nigeria Limited; Warri Old Port Terminal B, concessioned to Associated Maritime Services Limited.
Others are Warri New Terminal A, concessioned to Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited; Warri New Terminal B, Concessioned to Intels Nigeria Limited; Warri Terminal C, con-cessioned to Julius Berger Plc and Koko Terminal, formally conces-sioned to Gulftainer Limited, now Sifax Group for 25 years. The Onitsha River Port is yet to be concessioned.
Different strokes for different folks
The challenges besetting these ports vary. For instance, the Calabar port is said to have a major problem of its shallow depth. This is futher worsened by its collapsed quay apron and dilapidated access roads. For Onne port, its major problem is the port access road which is in very bad shape, just as the port also needs rail connection. Port Harcourt port suffers mainly from the collapse of quay apron and the poor access roads.
According to Ogbuokiri, since the construction of the Onitsha River Port to lighten cargoes from Apapa and Port Harcourt to terminal with the aim of serving the shippers in Ontisha, Nnewi and other surrounding towns, it has not been operationalised, even after the completion of the dredging of the River Niger to Baro in Niger State. Owing to this, the AMJON president submitted before the committee that no fewer than 754 vessels are said to have deserted the Eastern ports between 2013 and 2016. Specifically, the number of vessels that berthed at the ports reduced from 2,268 vessels in 2013 to 1,514 in 2016.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the number of vessels that berthed at the Delta port fell from 609 in 2013 to 433 in 2016, while the Gross Registered Tonnage at the port also dropped from 8,687,160 in 2013 to 6,177,809 in 2016.
Hopeful investors?
Notwithstanding the problems, investors seem to be hopeful that cargoes from Lagos ports, due to the congestion western ports face, would one day be diverted to them.
For instance, the West Africa Container Terminal (WACT), at the Onne Port has invested $3.5 million in container handling equipment such as five reach stackers, two empty handlers and 14 terminal trucks. It also invested $10 million in two mobile harbour cranes to better serve its customers. Also, to complement the investment of terminal operators and to attract cargoes to eastern ports, the NPA introduced a rebate – a 10 per cent discount on harbour dues – in concessioned terminals at eastern ports. The NPA said the ports that would be affected by this initiative were: Calabar, Rivers and Delta ports.
