Bello-Koko wins Champion Newspapers’ most outstanding public servant award

Champion Newspapers Limited has announced Mohammed Bello Koko, the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), as the winner of its most outstanding public servant award in 2023.

In a statement on Thursday, Nwadiuto Iheakanwa, the general managing director of Champion Newspapers, said NPA also won the government agency award.

Iheakanwa said Bello-Koko has distinguished himself as a dynamic business administrator with a high degree of integrity and transparency.

Iheakanwa said the NPA has shown commitment to delivering efficient port services in a safe, secure, and customer-friendly manner under the leadership of Bello-Koko.

She added that the agency deserved the award for its unique initiatives towards enhancing the frontiers of trade facilitation in the country.

“The twin award, a product of the painstaking selection of our board of editors, is our modest way of recognizing institutions and leaders in both the public and private sectors of the economy who have made a greater sacrifice in ensuring that the fundamental objectives and ideals of our nationhood are sustained,” the statement reads.

“On all scores, our findings, largely corroborated by that of independent assessors, confirm that NPA under your management in the last four years has received fresh impetus due largely from your exemplary leadership skills, sustained its solid tradition of excellence, and trajectory as an agency of first choice and agency that has made the country proud and contributed immensely to its economic and social development.

“Your ingenious, creative, pragmatic, and resilient approach to leadership has brought a lot of transformation to the NPA, which has continued to surmount some of the known challenges that have made the nation’s ports largely inefficient over the years, which include infrastructure deficits, policy and regulatory inconsistencies, overlapping functions, and duplication of roles among ministries, departments, and agencies operating at the ports and high incidence of infractions.

Iheakanwa said the grand ceremony for the presentation of the awards will be held at Eko Hotels on May 25.