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Tag: Senate Committee on Marine Transport

Senate approves Transport Ministry 1.3bn budget proposal

The Senate Committee on Marine Transport has approved the N1.3billion budget proposal for Transportation Ministry.

The Committee stated that it was committed to ensuring that the objectives of the 2017 budget are achieved through oversight exercises.

The Chairman of the Committee, Sen Ahmed Yerima, also said in Abuja Thursday during budget defence of the ministry that rigorous oversight would follow the budget approval to ensure proper implementation.

He assured that the senate would work with the executive to get the country out of recession, adding that they would support any agency of government that showed commitment.

Also speaking, the Transportation Minister has also disclosed that contract for the dredging of the critical part of River Benue has been awarded and that work will soon commence.

He said the project was a fall out of the decision of the Federal Government to maximize the use of the resources of 12 major rivers in the country.

The minister added that the capital dredging of the Lower River Niger from Warri to Baro, covering a distance of 572 kilometers had commenced.

He added that Baro River Port had achieved 95 percent completion, adding that arrangement was being made for the provision of cargo handling equipment and the turning basin for the port.

According to him, government has approved the upward review of fees and tariffs for the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), to enable the country look inward and improve its economic base.

He said the government was determined to encourage a river dependent sustainable economic development through marine transportation.

“The 2017 budget is for economic recovery and growth, therefore the Federal Ministry of Transportation and its agencies under the 2017 budget seek to consolidate and sustain on the achievements and performances recorded in the past years.

“We will focus on the sustainability of the gains achieved in the sector, in terms of port infrastructure development, maritime administration, human capacity building and effective technical and economic regulation.

“The Federal Executive Council has approved the Outline Business Case (OBC) for Ibom Deep Sea Port on 60, 20, 20 per cent basis between the concessionaire, Akwa Ibom government and Nigerian Ports Authority.

“On Badagry deep sea port, FEC has approved the OBC for the project to the funded 100 per cent by the proponent,” he said.

February 2, 2017
Stakeholders ask National Assembly strip NPA of regulatory function

Stakeholders in the maritime sector Tuesday asked the National Assembly to pass into law the Ports and Harbour Bill to give legal backing to ports concessioning of 2006.

he Act, they said, should also set performance benchmarks in the sector in accordance with global best practices.

At a one- day Public Hearing on Amendment of National Inland Water Ways Authority Act (Amendment Bill, 2016 and Nigerian Ports Authority Act( Amendment) Bill, 2016, representatives of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Ports Terminal Operators, Nigerian Shipping Association and Maritime Advocacy Group were unanimous in their appeal to the National Assembly to take a look at the Ports and Harbour bill with a view to separating the regulation functions of the ports from the day to day functions of the Nigerian Ports Authority with a view to making the ports work more efficiently.

The Public Hearing was organized by the Senate Committee on Marine Transport in Abuja.

Chief Chidi Iluogu (SAN) who represented Nigerian Ports Terminal Operators said there was a need for the National Assembly to ensure that adequate frame work was in place for private sector participation and to promote efficiency based on principles of accountability, competition, fairness and transparency.

Iluogu noted that it was only fair that functions are streamlined in the sector so as to reap the maximum benefits from the ports.

He said,” It is a source of concern that many years after the concessioning the laws were still being awaited,” emphasizing that the nation’s ports must be empowered by law to work efficiently.

A former Director of Post Privatization Monitoring at the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Kashim Ibrahim Mohammed on his own noted that the transportation bills currently pending before the National Assembly will stem the tide of crisis bedeviling cargo handling and clearance at the nation’s ports.

He insisted that for the ports to work optimally, the legislature must enact laws that will separate the functions of the Nigerian Ports Authority as the landlord from that of the regulation, urging the legislature to speed up the passage of the National Transport Commission Bill that was also before it.

He said he anticipates a situation where the Nigerian Shippers Council will be adapted to transmute into the National Transportation Commission (NTC) since the Council had latent statutory functions that are similar to those of the proposed NTC.

Senator Khairat Gwadabe who spoke on behalf of Maritime Advocacy Group said concessioning of ports was the modern trend globally as virtually all maritime nations have carried out one form of ports concession or the other but lamented that in Nigeria, the exercise was done without first putting the legal frame work in place.

She urged the National Assembly to expedite action on the transport related bills pending before it so as to provide a level playing field that will see Nigeria rake in billions of naira in non-oil revenue from the ports.

Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ahmed Rufai Sani said that he was optimistic that the country’s maritime sector would contribute tremendously to the nation’s economic recovery efforts.

He said, “With the concessioning of the Port Terminals in 2006, the Nigerian Ports Authority is should no longer be an active participant in the day-to-day running of ports in Nigeria.”

He added that the Senate will set new benchmarks and give the needed legal backing, adding that the proposed amendment would look towards the direction of huge revenue generation and creation of jobs.

Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, said that the country was losing huge sums of revenue through inefficiencies in the Nigerian maritime transport system.
Saraki who was represented by the Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Philip Aduda, noted that the nation’s Marine sector has fallen short of meeting the needs of water transportation system and by extension, the nation was losing huge revenues.

He said that the effective means of water transport was the creation of enabling environment for private participation, saying the 8th Senate was committed to making sure, Acts of NIWA and that of NPA were amended.

“The 8th Senate will take time to create enabling laws for private sector participation and NIWA must be part of Nigeria’s agencies that generates revenues for economic growth,” he said.

November 22, 2016
Senate threatens to revoke port concession agreement with defaulters

The Senate Committee on Marine Transport warned Friday that it would revoke the port concession agreement with any terminal operator that fails to keep its own side of the agreement.

Committee Chairman Ahmed Yerima said at the end of a five-day oversight supervision by the committee at Western and Eastern ports that some of the concessionaires had refused to perform their obligations.

He said the concession agreement should be reviewed every two years,and urged the terminal operators to fulfill their financial obligations as highlighted in the Memorandum of Understanding (Mou) with the Federal Government in order to reap the dividends of port concession.

“Since 2006, when the Federal Government approved the ports for concession, there has been no review of the agreement,” he said.

“We have the power to call for the cancellation of agreement with any concessionaire, who is not performing.

“If you look at the relationship between government and the concessionaires, some of the concessionaires have violated the agreement.

“We are going to look deep into it and ensure that the concessionaires operate within the ambit of the agreement,” the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted him as saying.

He said that the Senate had established a Sub-Committee on Investigation, which was new in the history of Senate to ensure proper operations of the concessionaires.

Yerima said that the Committee on Marine Transport had written letters to both NPA and terminal operators, requesting for information to enable the terminal operators to operate according to the concession agreement.

The committee chairman said efforts of members of the committee were meant to ensure that all revenue should be paid into government’s coffer for government to achieve its mandate.

He said that the committee would investigate deep into previous records of the terminal operators to ensure that nobody short-changed the government on revenue.

Yerima said that there was need to establish more deep seaports in the country.

He said that shallow waters would not allow bigger vessels into the Nigerian waters, adding that bigger vessels patronized Cotonou and other countries due to their deep seaports.

The lawmaker said that if both Badagry and Lekki deep seaports commence operations, the ports would develop Nigerian trade in the area of imports and exports.

Yerima said that the meeting held by President Muhammadu Buhari with some leaders in the Niger Delta would stop security challenges in the country.

He said once the security challenges become things of the past, abundant business opportunities would be available for Nigerians and recession would be erased from the system.

November 4, 2016
Photos: Ambode receives Senate committee on Marine trasnport

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode (right), presenting a State plaque to Chairman, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Sani Yerima during a courtesy visit to the Governor by the Committee, at the Lagos House

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode (right), with Chairman, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Sani Yerima during a courtesy visit to the Governor by the Committee, at the Lagos House, Ikeja, on Tuesday

L-R: Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode (2nd right), with Senator Olamilekan Adeola Solomon, Senator Isiaka Adeleke and Chairman, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Sani Yerima during a courtesy visit to the Governor by the Committee

L-R: Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode (middle); Senator Ahmed Ogembe; Senator Ben Uwajumogu; Senator Isiaka Adeleke; Senator Abdullahi Gumal; Senator Obinna Ogbu and Senator Sam Anyanwu during a courtesy visit to the Governor by the Senate Committee on Marine Transport

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode (middle), flanked by Chairman, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Sani Yerima (right) and member of the Committee, Senator Isiaka Adeleke during a courtesy visit to the Governor, at the Lagos House, Ikeja, on Tuesday, November 1

L-R: Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode (middle); Senator Olamilekan Adeola Solomon, Senator Isiaka Adeleke; Chairman, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Sani Yerima and Senator Binta Garba during a courtesy visit to the Governor by the Committee.

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode (5th right), in a group photograph with the Senate Committee on Marine Transport during their courtesy visit, at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

November 1, 2016