Hyacinth Chinweuba
Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ONICCIMA) has called on Federal Government to show commitment towards realising a functional River Port in Onitsha.
President of ONICCIMA, Mr. Don Ebubeogu, made the call at the 12th Edition of “The Perspective’’, an annual lecture series of the chamber recently in Onitsha.
The 2019 edition was titled “Onitsha River Port Capacity and Possibilities”.
Ebubeogu said that the non-functionality of the port several years after the project was initiated by former President Shehu Shagari in 1983, was hampering economic growth of the sector.
He recalled that the Federal Government, also under former President Goodluck Jonathan, approved N4.6 billion in 2012 for the rehabilitation of the facility.
“The project, which was initiated out of sound economic consideration for the benefit of the nation’s economy, has been left to waste away for no reason.
“A port that boasts of transit sheds, warehouses of 100 x 55 meters with storage capacity of 10, 000 twenty-foot equivalent units, operations building and fuel tank farm, among others should not be left to waste.
“The usual convention after commissioning a facility as important as a River Port, would be an official declaration and gazetting of the facility to give it a legal status to operate.
“But the Onitsha River Port has no such proclamation made. What happened? Why should the port not be operational?”
In his remarks, Sen. Adeleke Mamora, the Managing Director of National Inland Water Ways Authority (NIWA) highlighted the economic benefits of the port.
Mamora called for concerted efforts towards making the port functional.
Also at the event was Mrs. Obiageli Obi, the Director-General, Nigerian Chamber of Shipping, the umbrella body of all stakeholders in the Nigeria Maritime Industry, among others.