Repositioning NPA for Increased Revenue
The role of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in the economic development of the nation cannot be quantified. As the gateway to the nation’s economy, more than 75 per cent of imports and exports pass through the seaports, hence the importance of NPA to the Nigerian economy.
Since the authority was established over 50 years ago, it has been playing its role of managing the nation’s seaports and enhancing revenue yield for the Federal Government.
The 2006 port reform programme made the authority to go through a lot of transformation. Its cargo handling operation was transferred to the concessionaires. The authority then began to play the role of a landlord but still takes care of channel management, harbour services, general security and other ancillary services.
Ceding its cargo handling operation to the concessionaires notwithstanding, successive managements of NPA have all consolidated on the gains of the concession programme for greater efficiency and high revenue yield.
However, by 2016 the economic meltdown as a result of recession adversely affected port operations. Cargo throughput dropped considerably as a result of low imports and exports. Activities in the seaports dropped to the lowest ebb. This of course would have telling effect on revenue generation and by extension maintenance responsibilities of the organization.
Therefore, the Federal Government saw the enormous tasks before would-be chief executive of the authority. President Muhammadu Buhari realised the need to have an accomplished administrator and a goal getter who would be able to reposition the authority for greater efficiency and high revenue yield in spite of the state of the economy.
The president beamed his searchlight and the lot fell on a young woman of substance with an impressive pedigree, Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman who was appointed the Managing Director of NPA on July 11, 2016. She made history as the first female chief executive of the authority.
On assuming office, Usman held a maiden meeting with her management team as well as the staff of the authority where she reeled out her operational thrust.
Some of these include “open door policy, capacity building, operational efficiency, succession plan, port daily master plan, and maximising revenue generation. Others are blockage of staff welfare and motivation, revenue leakages, security of lives and properties.
Conscious of time, Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman set the ball rolling by undertaking familiarization tour of the ports facilities and infrastructures under her jurisdiction. The tour, which began with the Calabar Port, observably came on the heels of an official commissioning of a milestone security project: the command, control communication and intelligence system (CCCIS).
A cutting edge security technology capable of tracking, recording and delivering ships movements within the country’s ports domain, the CCCIS would no doubt assist in a remarkable boost of the authority’s revenue.
She said that with the commissioning, NPA has become also “a worthy stakeholder” capable of assisting the country in networking to surmount security and safety challenges in Nigeria and within the entire Gulf of Guinea, alongside the capability of an interface with other relevant stakeholders, to track as well as record maritime security breaches.
She was of the opinion that the technology will enable NPA to generate adequate revenue and ensure that all revenue leakages are blocked, in furtherance of the Federal Government’s efforts towards revitalizing our economy.
As a firm believer in inter modal transport, she fast tracked the rehabilitation of roads in Lagos ports in her first few weeks in office and called for the enforcement of the tonnage limits for trucks and the use of railway for cargo movement in order to actualize quick cargo delivery. She promised to work with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to facilitate the use of railway by ensuring that the tracks are in place and provision made for rolling stock.