Mohammed Bello-Koko, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, has announced that the 25-year port master plans will be ready before the end of the third quarter of 2023.
Bello-Koko, in an exclusive chat in Lagos, said that the policy will guide the operations and locations of deep seaports and other ports in the country, and that the agency has gotten proposals for the location of ports meant for agribusinesses.
His words: “Actually, we started that process some time ago. It was a Canadian company that was given the consultancy services but they folded up and left the country and handed that responsibility to a local company that we believe didn’t have the capacity.
“So, we have to start the procurement processes all over again. We believe that before the third quarter of 2023, that policy should be ready and it will guide the operations and locations of deep seaports and other ports, not just deep seaport. But we have a 25-year port master plan that the NPA is developing and that master plan is studying the general economic situation of the country and looking at where you have the business hubs and where best to locate the ports and where it is cheaper to locate them looking at the natural draft and distances between one port to the other.
Talking about the location of deep seaports, he added that the coming on board policy will ensure that deep seaports are not approved indiscriminately. “And when that policy comes up, we believe that the Federal Government will adopt it. And we will also stick to the provisions of that policy and ensure that we don’t approve deep seaports at any other location. But for now, there are a couple of them: just Lekki and Badagry. We know there is a proposal to do one at Akwa Ibom, another one in Bonny and so on. But we are waiting to see the applications,” he affirmed.
