Bala Usman: NPA will not only make business easier, but also cheaper across Nigerian ports

Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), says the NPA will not only seek to make business easier across Nigerian ports, but also make it cheaper by reducing cost.

In line with the recent executive order by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Usman added that the NPA, under her leadership, will review tariffs by terminal operators in order to reduce the cost of operation at Nigerian ports.

She said the NPA is currently working on a review of concession agreements made with terminal operators about 11 years ago, to align those agreements to world best practices.

“Our port concessioning has been a success story; we need to acknowledge that the Landlord Model has been put in place over the last 11 years has been successful,” she said, while speaking with NTA on Thursday.

“We are working to review the concession agreement as we’ve said, there a various sections of the concessioning agreement that are not being adhered. There are various areas of obligation that both parties have not adhered to. To the extent that the Nigerian Ports Authority has critical obligations within the concession agreements that we need  to abide by.

“In the same manners, the concessionaires too have critical obligations that they have a ascertain, and in certain instances, they have not complied to. Both of us are in agreement on  the need to review the concession agreement, and we are working to do that in 2017.

“The revenues that are being raise by these terminal operators are beyond what the NPA was raising when it was operating the terminal. So indeed, the concessioning is a successful story but there are areas that need to be addressed.

“We need to sit around the table and dissect critical components of the concessioning that we are not able to do. One of the important things is around regulation. We need to have clear regulatory framework. We need to ensure payments are monitored efficiently.

On the tariff, she said “we in the Nigerian Ports Authority, have established that the terminal operators have increased their charges over the last 10 years. We feel that these increase in tariff needs to be done within the content of the concession agreement”.

“We’ve notified them on this. While there is indeed a temporary economic regulator, the Nigerian Ports Authority feels that within the concession agreement, we are signatory to the concession agreement, and there are areas that are terminal operators are not complying by notifying and obtaining approval of  government agencies before increase in any tariff.

“These issues need to be addressed with temporary regulator and also with the Nigerian Ports Authority. We’ve notified the terminal operators of the need to re-look at these increases of the terminal fees that they’ve done over the past years.

“To the extent that they did not get the necessary approval of government agencies, we would revert to the last terminal fees that obtained the necessary approvals by the government agencies. These are areas that attribute to the seeming cost of doing business in our ports.

“These are the areas that attribute to the assertion that our ports are more expensive. So, having our tariffs being transparent, ensuring that the terminal operators also have their tariff published publicly, so everybody is aware of the tariff regime.”

GOVT AGENCIES AS CHALLENGES TO EXECUTIVE ORDER

She added that one of the major challenges the NPA is facing with the implementation of the 24-hour port operation as mandated by the executive order has to do with government agencies.

“You have mentioned executive orders and the need for us to have 24 hours operation in our ports. There are various elements to these, we have respective agencies of government that hitherto do not operate for 24 hours,” Usman added.

“They come to work at 10am, they work till 3pm, they close. They are not here on public holidays, they are not here on weekends.

“So no matter what the terminal operators do and indeed the Nigerian Ports Authority do in providing berthing services and ensuring that the cargo are removed from the vessels, if these agencies of government are not on the ground to implement and do the inspections required, you cannot have 24-hour service.

“So, one of the things around the executive order on ensuring that every agency of government that is required to operate in the ports, should be there for 24 hours. And for those 24 hours, we mean doing the work 24 hours.

“Having a shift where the staff are actually there on ground and ensuring that if we say you should be at work by 8am, you should be at work by 8am.

“We have situations when an inspection is scheduled and the respective agencies of government are not there, and they keep people waiting and work for only three hours in a day. So how do we expect to perform optimally if examinations are done arbitrarily, people are not adhering to the work schedule.”