Pres. Tinubu’s policies driving maritime sector transformation, stellar revenue, says NPA MD Bello-Koko

The Managing Director/CEO of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello Koko, has lauded President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies that have expedited the transformation of the nation’s maritime industry and massive improvements in the NPA’s revenue generation.

The policies, Bello Koko noted, have also attracted global applause.

During an unscheduled visit to the Lagos ports access roads, where the NPA recently cleared a decade-long traffic gridlock, Koko praised the leadership and hands-on approach of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola.

As part of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, Bello-Koko said the sanity that has since returned to the ports access roads will be sustained to promote ease of doing business and drive exports to enhance Nigeria’s balance of trade.

The NPA boss noted that, despite global economic headwinds that characterized the year 2023, the NPA succeeded in maintaining momentum to surpass its sterling performance of the year 2022.

“The implementation of continuous performance improvement measures resulted in unprecedented revenue generation and remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federation, with revenues steadily growing from N361 billion in 2022 to N501 billion as of December 2023 and remittances increasing from N93.4 billion in 2022 to N131.2 billion by year-end 2023,” Bello-Koko said.

The NPA helmsman, who was recently appointed by Mr. President to the implementation committee of the National Single Window Project, added that “taxes paid to the Government of the Federation also grew at various times in the period under review up to $77.7 million and N17.6 billion, respectively.”

The foregoing, he said, added to strategic forecasts set to be actualized in 2024, such as the $1 billion-worth reconstruction of the Tincan Island Port Complex and the comprehensive rehabilitation of the Apapa, Rivers, Onne, Warri, and Calabar Port Complexes.

Others are the new ports developments, including the Badagry Deep Seaport, Snake Island, Burutu, and Ondo Deep Seaports; the Port Community System (PCS); and the National Single Window, amongst other initiatives for port competitiveness being aggressively implemented.

“It is evident that the Nigerian Ports Authority has been positioned not only to create but to sustain the stellar performance necessary to maximize the comparative advantages that Nigeria’s maritime endowments confer,” Bello-Koko said.