Like a man who came prepared for his new role as the helmsman of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, is not taking chances in his drive to change the face of Nigerian seaports.
Unlike his two immediate predecessors , Dr Dantsoho is not here to play politics. The mandate handed over to him by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was clear, and without any ambiguity: “Go reform Nigerian seaports in line with my Renewed Hope Agenda”.
Not only has his rich and intimidating credentials made his task a lot easier, but he is also enjoying the full backing of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy as well as the relevant committees in both chambers of the National Assembly.
Basking on the euphoria of his new role as Chairman of the Port Management Association of West and Central African, PMAWCA, Dr Dantsoho is mindful of the challenges which lay ahead.
Dantsoho is further challenged by what he has seen in investment portfolios of member states of the group he now leads.
It was, therefore, no surprise when he stormed the Onne and Rivers Ports Complex , a fortnight ago, with a clarion call on the need to invest heavily on the Eastern Ports.
Just a couple of months ago, one of the big terminal operators in the region, the West African Container Terminal, WACT, had moved the creme de la creme of Nigeria’s maritime sector to Onne Port to inaugurate no fewer than 16 container handling equipment worth about $112 million . The upgrade includes the acquisition of mobile harbour cranes, Rubber tyred gantry cranes, forklifts as well as the expansion of the current yard amongst other interventions.
The event was no doubt an eye opener to the management of Nigerian Ports which took up the event as a huge challenge. Speaking when he visited INTELS LOGISTICS NIGERIA LTD , Dantsoho said that “ with the quantum of investments of Nigeria’s maritime neighbours, especially along the West and Central African Coast are attracting, we can only stay competitive if we redouble our investment drive in order to provide requisite Infrastructure and equipment to attract the sizes of vessels that can scale up our cargo throughput to adequately serve our huge population.”
This clarion call from Dr Dantsoho may perhaps also be an indirect response to what is happening on the global stage. For instance, the majority of top competitive ports are currently undergoing one form of upgrade or another. Top on the list is the King Abdulaziz Port in Damman, Saudi Arabia.
Contruction giants, China Harbours Engineering is handling the upgrade worth almost $1.8 billion. Also on the list of big spenders in port facility ugrade is PARADIP PORT OF INDIA which has awarded a contract worth about $408.9 million for its dry dock.
In Thailand, the Laem Chabang port is embarking on its phase 3 expansion in the Eastern Gulf of Thailand . The Contract worth about $927 million is for the construction of six quays and a rail station.
At completion, the port will be able to handle additional seven million containers a year, and a one million cars through its RoRo Operations.
In Europe , the Port of Genoa in Italy has awarded a contract to WEBUILD for the protection of her 6.2km length of break waters.
This aims to protect the Basins and Port Structures. With a depth of 50m, it will be the deepest in Europe. Also in Europe, the MAASVLATE 2 TERMINAL expansion, Netherland ,has been awarded to APM Terminals. The contract is to expand one of Europe’s largest seaports by an additional 47. 5 meters, in addition to a 1km of deep sea quay at a cost of $1.1billion .