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The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has released its half-year performance report, showing a gross revenue of N191, 430,093,501.The report, signed by its Managing Director, Mohammed Bello Koko, also showed that the Authority, between January and June, remitted N55,712,565,027.46 to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federation.
Koko said NPA projects to realise over N500 billion in revenue by the end of the year, going by current momentum and trend of shipping volumes peaking between July and December.
The NPA boss described the half-year performance as good, especially when juxtaposed against the existential economic headwinds both at micro and macro levels. He said: “viewed within the context of current global economic upheavals which have affected trade volumes in all climes, our current growth trajectory is encouraging and gives us confidence to project a revenue growth of over 500 billion with concomitant increase in remittance to CRF by end-of-year 2023, given that shipping activities peak around the second half of the year’’
“The smart policy thrust of the new administration which is already throwing up new vistas of growth further lends credence to the feasibility of our projections and gives fillip to our organizational initiatives.” Koko added that “the operationalization of Lekki Deep Seaport, expected restoration of the service boat management contract, digitalisation and intensified tightening of collections mechanisms buoys our confidence at meeting and indeed exceeding the revenue projections”. The Authority, he noted, has completed operations on 1851 vessels for the 1st half of 2023 with a combined Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) of 57,870,083, with cargo throughput for the period under review stood at 33,895,784 metric tonnes, whilst container traffic was 707,985 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units).
A key indicators of port efficiency, which is the average turn-around-time (TAT) of vessels, stood at 5.16 days. “This is an improvement and we have put measures in place to surpass in the second half of 2023”, Koko noted. The NPA boss stated that the Authority will, in the second half of the year, focus on finalising financing arrangements for its port rehabilitation drive, conclude all digitalisations geared towards improvement of efficiency and collaboration with landlocked neighbouring countries like Niger and Chad to use Nigerian ports as hubs for their transshipment cargoes. He also said the authority was working assiduously to improve on service delivery, plug revenue leakages, curb waste and tighten collection mechanisms; all in an effort to retain stakeholders’ confidence and ultimately support the economy to grow.
