Akin Ricketts, chairman, board of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has assured that under his watch, issues around congestion on the roads leading to seaports as well as underutilisation of ports in Eastern part of the country, would be dealt with.
Speaking at the inauguration of the new board members of NPA in Abuja last week, Ricketts said the major issues confronting ports today are capacity utilisation and evacuation corridors.
“While the ports in the East are being grossly underutilised due to many factors, the efficiency of the ports in Lagos is hampered by inadequate evacuation corridors that lead to congestion on the road, which ultimately affects prompt service delivery,” he stated.
According to him, the new board intends to confront the challenges head-on in conjunction with other stakeholders, with a view to ameliorating the sufferings of port users and ease business in the port, as envisaged by the Federal Government.
“As a serious government on a national rescue mission, we assure you that we will immediately commence discharging our responsibilities. This Board does not and would not consider itself an alternate management nor be in competition with the management but will synergies and perform effective oversight of the management to ensure that the mission, vision and strategic objectives of NPA are achieved,” he assured.
