Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)
has made a request to the Federal Ministry of Transportation under the watch of
Rotimi Amaechi to take over the construction of Tincan Island port access road
in Apapa from the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing headed by
Babatunde Fashola.
Managing Director of the NPA, Ms
Hadiza Bala-Usman disclosed this yesterday while speaking at a stakeholders
meeting in Lagos.
Usman also ordered owners of
empty containers to remove them in one week or have them removed by the
authority.
She disclosed that Honeywell
Flour Mills Plc had offered to conclude the shoreline protection for the
trailer park in Tincan Island.
“We have made it clear to them
that the completion will be done as a corporate social responsibility and it
must be available to everybody. If they are unable to agree to our terms, we
look for other alternatives,” Thisday quoted her as saying.
“We believe that the Federal
Ministry of Works might not have the urgency that we have. If it is proving
challenging for them to take action on some of the discussions that we have
with them, the NPA through the Ministry of Transportation is willing to take
over the construction and rehabilitation of these roads and the funding for that
could be considered as part of our contribution to the consolidated revenue
fund because indeed we revenue generating agencies contribute to the CRF fund
and it is from the CRF fund that projects are done in the Ministry of Works and
the federal government.
“We want to take over the
construction of the roads because we have been having these dialogs for a long
time and also the completion of the trailer transit park. I am struggling to
get first certificate out of the Ministry of Works to enable us pay for Warf
Road construction.
“The NPA has set aside N1.8
billion for the road but to get certificate from the ministry for us to pay is
a challenge. In fact I even went to procurement and said give us any document
to enable us pay or even start processing the payment. We have to think and
push ourselves beyond the limits and immediate mandate to see how we can do as
much as we can.
“We are also looking at other
alternatives to evacuate cargo out of the ports including the flag off of
export at the Ikorodu Lighter Terminal. I have given instructions to people in
charge of certain important offices to give operators whatever they want to
ensure efficient operations at the ports”.
“The era of creating bureaucratic
bottlenecks by passing files around to delay projects should be behind us. The
NPA is doing what it can to resolve the issue of bad roads on the Apapa port
environment.
“We must comply with directive
and rules and regulation as nobody’ interest should be put ahead of the drive
to ensure we have an efficient port. We must do the right thing to ensure
access into our port locations.
“As regards terminal operators,
we will be very high handed in the next few weeks because they must pay up
their debts. We will ensure forceful withdrawal of your services, anything that
is within the law and terms of concession agreement will be employed.
“I understand your complaints
around your not being able to meet up with your GMT because of certain
government policy reversals; you have concerns about diversion of cargo. However,
I want to reiterate that indebtedness is indebtedness. Pay up what is owed the
NPA within the shortest possible time.
“Regarding the review of
concession agreements I also know it is good for us to conclude it as soon as
possible. There are critical decision areas that I have directed our legal team
to take a look at so that by May this year we can sign the supplementary
agreements around the concession agreement. Critical among the issues is the
consideration around the removal of GMT so that we are charging based on what
is tenable”.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete