Bala Usman: We’ve improved NPA’s consolidated revenue from N18bn to N30bn

Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), says under her watch, the authority the consolidated revenue funds (CRF) of the agency improved from N18 billion to N30 billion.

In an interview with THISDAY, Usman said her goal is to make the NPA transparent and accountable in its procedures.

She listed transparency and accountability in the agency among her achievements.

“My achievements, I think, is for me to entrench transparency and accountability in our procedures. Demystify governance and provide stakeholders with an in-road to understand what it is that we do, ” she said.

“Also, you look to ensure full compliance on regulations and third-party contractors that may not have been complying with regulations or contractual obligations.

“So we have been enforcing that. For example, the audit; we inherited a full backlog of audited financial statements, and we within the three years, have been able to clear up the entire backlog. We have our current audit for 2018 currently being done, and I would say, this is the first time that the Nigerian Port Authority is catching up on its audit.

“In other areas, I would speak to our contributions to the Consolidated Revenue Funds (CRF). When we inherited it, we had a contribution of about N18 billion, but we remitted N30 billion in 2017, N30 billion in 2018.

“These are clear differentials since my joining Nigerian ports. If you look at an N18-billion contribution to CRF, and then a N30-billion contribution, you can see that there is a huge difference.”

Speaking on the authority’s row with BUA Ports and Terminal in Rivers state, Usman dismissed the allegation that the organisation was being targeted by the authority.

She said the NPA would not be intimidated by anyone trying “to create a sense of victimisation”.

“BUA is twisting the facts that our action is something deliberately targeted at them or trying to frustrate their business,” she said.

“So if you have been a responsible business entity that was required to reconstruct a berth in 90 days and you didn’t do it in 10 years, where does the issue of being targeted come in?

“I find the idea of taking your non-compliance to the media domain, to distract people from the fact that you’re not complying, and to attribute personal issues to your noncompliance sad and pathetic. And it’s a desperate attempt by BUA to cover up their non-compliance to contractual obligations. I always want to state here that, I would not be intimidated or bullied by anybody that thinks he can go and buy 10 pages of an advertorial in every newspaper.

“And I say, if BUA wants to sustain that, they can keep doing it until the end of the year or forever, because the NPA would not be intimidated or bullied by anyone because he feels he has the capacity to mobilize media and create a sense of victimization, trying to make it look like you are the victim when we all know you are not a victim.”