The Nigerian Ports Authority ( NPA) , losses $41billion on daily basis due to poor management of ports across the country said the President of Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) , Mkgeorge Oyung in Abuja Monday.
Oyung who stated this in his presentation at the public hearing on Nigerian Economic Diversification Bill 2022, organised by the Senate Committee on National Planning , noted that NPA was making a total of $2m (N890,000, 000) instead of $43bn (19,135,000,000,000) as daily revenue.
Shipping according to him, is the biggest business in the world which Nigeria must pay attention to.
“Shipping is 90% of global trends and as far as the world is concerned, nothing moves, and nothing goes on without shipping, and without shipping, there is no shopping.
“NPA makes $2m a day by their revenue, whereas it is an industry where it is $43bn dollars a day; $1.8bn an hour and $30m a minute. NPA is making $2m a day, which means something must give way and my suggestion is that we should relocate Ajegunle”, he said.
The SOAN president added that the ports are functional but the poor management of the ports and lack of diversification has continued to inhibit the optimization of NPA.
He further advised that the Apapa and Lekki ports should be made feeder ports to others for easy and faster clearance of containers as against concentration of about 3,000 containers a day in one with attendant congestion.
“If somebody imports a car, there’s really no reason why he should clear it in Lagos. If the car is taken to Port-Harcourt or Warri or Calabar, and cleared there, a person can drive back to Kaduna, Imo, Maiduguri or other states.
” So, when every car comes to Lagos and we diversify and say that some ports are for the exports, rail road, cars and some ports for minerals, that will help the economy”, he said.
He pointedly said one of the ways to save the situation, particularly in Lagos was to relocate the Ajegunle community in other to save the ports, saying ” decisions like that must be taken in order to save the economy”.
“There used to be a Tejuosho market, until Lagos state then decided to demolish the market and turn it into a market, today, people use AC there.
“If you go abroad that’s how they started, when the market becomes chaotic and people do not get the value of their money, they try to modernise the market, so that people will be able to enjoy their money.”
Onyung noted that people can be relocated like in the case of Maroko but Ajegunle should not be relocated in such a manner but should be compensated properly.
