Vicky Haastrup, Chairman, Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), says the successful concession of Nigerian ports made it a model to other countries.
Haastrup said in a statement that other countries were using Nigeria’s model to concession their public infrastructure and urged Federal Government to extend the model to other sectors of the economy.
In the statement signed by STOAN spokesman, Bolaji Akinola, Haastrup commended the government for its foresight in the concession of terminal operations at the seaports in 2006.
“After Nigeria’s port concession, we now have countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Ghana and even Greece, adopting our model.
“The Liberians and Ghanaians sent delegations to understudy our port concession model to develop theirs,’’ the STOAN chairman said.
Haastrup recalled that recently, the Greek Government concessioned the Thessaloniki Port, which was one of its most important public infrastructure.
According to her, this is a clear indication of our success as a nation in building models worthy of emulation by others.
“What the concession does is that it frees government resources for the provision of other social services to the people.
“Government remains the ultimate owner of the concessioned facilities but the private sector is mandated to develop and operate those facilities under agreed terms over a certain period.
“This is a worthy model, which has not only improved operations at our ports, but has also attracted commendation from within and outside the country.
She said the fact that government was considering adopting the concession model for the railway and aviation sectors derived from the success of port concession.
“I have implicit confidence in the present government’s ability and commitment to the improvement of public infrastructure in the country and one is delighted to note that concession has become the model being adopted for both the railway and aviation sector reforms, ‘’ she said.
The STOAN chairman commended the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for launching a Safety, Information, Operation and Communication Centre to enhance 24-hour operation at the ports.
“The commissioning of this centre and the recent launch of four new tugboats by NPA will deepen reforms at the port.
“It will complement the efforts of terminal operators to make our ports competitive, ‘’ she said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that before the 2006 concession terminal operations, Nigerian ports faced major challenges which placed the ports among the most inefficient in the world.
Before concession, the average waiting time for ships before berthing was 21 days; vessels’ turnaround time was seven days, while dwell time of cargo was as high as 45 days.
Virtually all the major seaports across the country were heavily congested leading to insecurity and pilferage, delays in cargo clearance and inefficiencies in cargo handling, largely due to manual processes.
As a result of the challenges, the Federal Government in 2006, concessioned cargo handling operations at the ports to 25 terminals operators under various lease agreements ranging from 15 to 25 years.
The private terminal operators say they had invested about $2 billion dollars (N610 billion) in modernising and upgrading their various terminals as well as on manpower development.
As a result of the huge investment, ship waiting time has been eliminated to zero day, while vessel turnaround time has also improved significantly based on cargo type.
Congestion at the various ports have also been eliminated, resulting in a huge cost-saving running into about N30 billion annually. (NAN)
