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The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola, has lauded the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for living up to its billing in effective ports operation just as he said critical infrastructure at the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports will be given priority attention by the Federal Government.
He promised to bring the condition at the Lagos ports to the attention of President Bola Tinubu for approval for immediate rehabilitation.
Oyetola said the NPA needed government’s support, adding that the terminal managers at the ports should be willing to contribute to the rehabilitation of the ports.
“I am impressed with the management of the authority we need to support them and I am looking forward to a situation where the terminal managers will be willing to contribute to the rehabilitation of the ports.
“It is important and if they do that, they will make more money for themselves and it should be a collaboration with the terminal and the government,” the minister told newsmen at the end of the maiden tour of the ports.
The Managing Director/CEO of NPA, Malam Mohammed Bello-Koko had led the minister and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry on a tour of the facilities accompanied by Executive Directors and other members of the management.
The Minister, who inspected collapsed section of the quays, said to forestall collapse of the ports infrastructure there must be immediate intervention.
Urging terminal operators to collaborate with the government on the project, the former Osun governor said: “To avoid the collapse of the port we need to rehabilitate the port as a matter of urgency and dredging must continue and we can put other things in place.
“I have gone round to see the things for myself. I have been having ministerial briefing since the last 10 days and I have seen a lot of things such as the challenges and the need to activate a lot of things about our ports.
“Infrastructure is almost collapsing with what I have seen so far and it is a major rehabilitation that have to be carried out and the dredging has to continue.
“We are carrying out remedial work on the quay wall very soon and I have asked them to let us have the report of what they carried out so far ,we need to know the numbers so that we can get approval from the president for remedial work.
“Absolutely we need to restructure and put the right infrastructure in place and it’s a way of revitatlising the economy we rely so much on oil and there are lot of other opportunities that has remained untapped for so many years and we must commend the president for creating the ministry.”
On the plan of government for other ports, Oyetola expressed the administration’s readiness to do an overhaul of the ports facilities.
On the rehabilitation of the port access roads, he said he would link up with the Federal Ministry of Works on the rehabilitation.
“On access road, it’s important to put it in place, we need to engage the minister of works to see what we can do together and I have discussed with the Ministry of Transportation to see what we can do with the rail.
“I believe with all those things in place, we are good to go,” Oyetola said.
While welcoming the minister, NPA boss Bello-Koko thanked him for the visit to see things for himself and pledged the management’s cooperation with the minister and the administration.
