Valentine Okafor
The Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, has raised about N172.285bn as revenue from its operations in the first half of 2022.
The Authority, also remitted N78.496bn to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation as required by the law.
The Authority disclosed this in its half-year 2022 operational reports released by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, Mr. Mohammed Bello Koko.
A breakdown of the N78.496bn showed that N50.255bn represents cash remittances from the compulsory deduction of 25 per cent of revenue generated and other sundry payments for the period covering January to June 2022.
He stated that the remaining amount of N28.241bn relates to the remittance with respect to other periods.
Koko said that in the face of global economic and inflation crises, among others negative factors, the half-year operational statistics were encouraging, adding that they had bolstered impressive remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federal government
He said, “Global economic and inflation crises, global reduction in household incomes and purchasing power and scarcity of foreign exchange all of which has negatively affected business environment, affected government revenue and constrained expenditure.
“The development in the port industry cannot be severed from the macro-economic environment with galloping inflation that has grossly reduced the disposable income of the households, the depreciating exchange rates that stifle business environment and the dwindling government revenue that constrains expenditure.
“In the face of these harsh macro-economic indices, the Nigerian Ports Authority has forged on to deliver port and harbour services to the teeming operators in the export and import businesses across the country.”
The NPA boss explained that the remittances were expressions of the operational performance of the ports.
According to him, “In the 1st half of 2022, a total of 1,992 ships calls were recorded and the aggregate of the Gross Registered Tonnage of vessels was 60,235,133 tons.
“The Authority achieved total cargo throughput of 38,672,392 metric tonnes and 849,175 teus (twenty-foot equivalent units) of container traffic. Vehicle traffic handled during the period under review, was 132,543 units.
“Also, the average turn-around-time of vessels, indicating port efficiency, stood at 5.16days. This is an improvement and we are strategizing to perform better in the second half of the year.”
Koko said that it was important to note that “port remains the gateway of the national economy, and thus represents the barometer by which we measure the pulse of the economy.
“The Authority remains committed to providing improved services to increase efficiency at the ports that impact on higher revenue generation and economic growth of the nation.”
He said the NPA has improved services to increase efficiency at the ports. He listed some of these measures to include deployment of marine crafts at all ports locations; marking/laying of buoys at Calabar and Escravos Channel to improve safe navigation; encouraging the use of Eastern Port by way of incentives to importers on port charges; deployment of security patrol boats to increase safety along the Port Quays; and repairs/ rehabilitation of ports’ access roads to improve cargo evacuation and dwell time.
Others, he said, were encouraging the use of barges for cargo evacuation to reduce traffic gridlock on the roads; licensing of export processing terminals in order to support the federal government’s initiative on increase in non-oil exports; creating MSS for barge operations in order to improve multi-modal means of cargo movement; and, working on initiatives to improve on staff members’ welfare.