FG decries huge revenue loss at Calabar Po rt

From Uche Usim, Abuja

The Federal Government has frowned at the perennial revenue loss for both public and private sector players occasioned by non-dredging of the Calabar Channel, a development that has impeded vessels coming into the Calabar Port.

Acting Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Dr. Vincent Onome Akpotaire, who made the observation in Abuja after a post privatisation monitoring tour of terminal operators said the concessionaires and other port users were at the receiving end of the ugly development.

Represented by the Director, Post Privatisation Monitoring in the BPE, Mr. Joseph Chigbo Anichebe, he said the bureau would immediately come up with a report on its assessment of the port and present to the Federal Government for quick intervention for the dredging which commenced some time ago but suddenly stopped.

He said though the BPE was not a party to the contract for the dredging of the Calabar Channel, but would step in to ensure that the Federal Government dredged the port because it was an agreement signed with the terminal operators during the concessioning of the terminals.

He noted that the greatest challenge at the port was its shallow draft, a development that shrank operations with its attendant loss of revenue to the Federal Government and other players:

“Calabar Port is not what we were expecting. We expected to see here what is happening in Lagos and Port –Harcourt ports where activities are booming but unfortunately, the Calabar port has gone back to pre-2006 levels. We have interacted with port operators who told us why the port is not performing as expected and have given the bureau an avalanche of reasons the port is not performing. And the major Zchallenge they say is the non-dredging of the Calabar Channel.

“No ocean going vessel can come into the channel. We were expecting the draught to be deepened but as it is now, no big or container laden vessels can come into the Port. When we go back after the interaction with the terminal operators, we will do a report to the BPE management and the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), chaired by the Vice-President, highlighting the problems we saw on ground and it is our belief that very soon things will change based on our recommendations”, he explained.

He stressed that after the interaction with the terminal operators, the key thing that played out was the non-dredging of the Calabar Channel.