…. Move to review NPA Act
From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has frowned at the absence of scanning machines at the country ‘s ports, saying that manual inspection of goods cannot be allowed to continue.
The chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Ports and Habour, Nnolim Nnaji, stated this during an oversight visit by the Committee to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) headquarters, in Lagos. He said the deployment of scanning machines at the Ports will help to improve efficiency.
Nnaji, who also led members of the Committee to Tin Can Island and Apapa Wharf, noted that the parliament is interested in the viability of ports in the country, and would review the NPA Act, so as to make the agency more efficient.
According to him, the NPA is one of the agencies the government is looking up for increased revenue generation. Consequently, he stated that there is need for rehabilitation and upgrade of the Ports to improve their efficiency.
The lawmaker added that the Committee is committed to working towards the success of the NPA and will render all necessary supports to enable the agency perform optimally.
“Whatever that will make NPA to succeed, we will do that. You know we are legislators. We are going to look at the NPA Act. If they are areas,to amend we will come up with a new Act. We are going to do it in conjunction with stakeholders.
“We are interested in the Ports. This is one of the agencies the Federal Government is looking up to. I am also happy that there are also plans for an aggressive rehabilitation of the Ports.
“On the issue of Port efficiency, we also need to upgrade the standard of the Ports. You just mentioned the issue of scanning, these are the things, I believe will help to upgrade our ports.
“We cannot afford to be doing 100 percent manual. If we have scanning machines, it increases efficiency. And that is the way to go; knowing fully that there are a lot of countries we are competing with right now.
“NPA is very dear to Nigerians. And everybody is looking up to you to generate more. We are looking at triple digits increase from the NPA. And the only way to go is to modernize it,” Nnaji stated.
Earlier, the Managing Director, NPA , Mohammed Bello Koko , told the lawmakers that prior to the concession the Ports in 2005, the Authority was running and managing the ports. Koko explained that “now we only regulate and maintain security while the concessionaires are the ones running them”.
The NPA boss added that the agency was committed to the development of the ports so as to achieve a fully automated ports in the nearest future.