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By Steve Agbota
The hope for improved ease of doing business and trade facilitation in the South-East may have suffered a setback as the concessionaire of the Onitsha river port, Universal Elison, has raised the alarm over unfriendly interest rates being slammed by banks on acquisition of ocean going barges and tug boats and dredging of Lagos to Onitsha.
It was reported that the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), on April 20, 2023, announced the concessioning of the Onitsha river port, Anambra state to private concessionaire for 30 years.
According to NIWA, the concessioning would ease pressure on the government and attract revenue to it as the concessioning firm would be paying royalty to the government.
But speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting with the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, in Lagos, representative of the concessionare, Bernadine Eloka, said the operators are facing funding challenges as that banks were requesting 40 per cent interest rate annually.
Eloka who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Clarion Bonded Terminal, lamented the bottlenecks in getting barge registration and licenses by the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) adding that the process is fraught with bureaucracy and frustrations.
“Another challenge is funding, the Barge that is being funded now by one of our banks is at interest of 40 per cent interest rate per annum. We began negotiations and we brought it down to 30 per cent interest.
The CVFF is yet to be distributed and I believe we should be one of the beneficiaries of that fund.
“We operate bonded terminals which involves movement of containers from Lagos, Port Harcourt, Onne, down to Onitsha. I am representing the concessionare of Onitsha River Ports; the Universal Elison, we move an average of 500 containers in a month from Lagos, Port Harcourt and Onne, and we do this journey by road. We want the government to open up the dredging from Lagos to Onitsha and from Port Harcourt to Onitsha before the end of the year.
“We just finished building another ocean going barge and tug boat that we want to use to commence the Onne, Calabar and Port Harcourt operations. We are mapping out strategies for the dredging but it cannot be done without support of the Federal Government,” Eloka stated
She, however, stated that the concessionaire would want the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry to make registration and license registration for barges and tugs seamless and cost effective.
“Some of the issues we want the ministry to help in facilitating and make our operations seamless and cost effective is the issue of obtaining registration and licenses. We know that we cannot operate our barges without them being registered and licenses, but it has been very difficult, time consuming and frustrating procedures and processes.
“Another challenge is funding, the Barge that is being funded now by one of our banks is at interest of 40 per cent interest rate per annum. We began negotiations and we brought it down to 30 per cent interest. The CVFF is yet to be distributed and I believe we should be one of the beneficiaries of that fund.
“We operate bonded terminals which involves movement of containers from Lagos, Port Harcourt, Onne, down to Onitsha. I am representing the concessionare of Onitsha River Ports; the Universal Elison, we move an average of 500 containers in a month from Lagos, Port Harcourt and Onne, and we do this journey by road. We want the government to open up the dredging from Lagos to Onitsha and from Port Harcourt to Onitsha before the end of the year,” Eloka added.
