THE Federal Government of Nigeria has approved a 15 per cent tariff increase for all port charges.
The managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Abubakar Dantsoho, disclosed this on Thursday, February 6 during a stakeholders engagement in Lagos state.
The tariff increase, Dantosho said, is aimed at ensuring competitiveness and infrastructure upgrades.
He said, “The 15 per cent upward increase, which is to cut across all NPA Rates and Dues, is premised on the urgent need to address the undesirable reality of aged and weak Infrastructure, obsolete equipment, and slow Port capacity expansion, which has continued to diminish the performance and indeed competitiveness of Nigerian Ports.”
According to Dantsoho, the authority was compelled by the exigency of bringing Nigerian ports up to speed with those of its peers in terms of infrastructure and equipment.
Represented by the Executive Director of Marine and Operations, Olalekan Badmus, he noted that the agency had maintained the same rates for over three decades despite significant economic changes, including exchange rate fluctuations, rising wages, fuel and lubricant costs, and inflation.
He asserted that port authorities globally depend on revenue from operations to stay alive to their responsibilities which include construction and maintenance of port infrastructure, dredging of channels, provision of aids for safe navigation, provision of modern marine crafts for efficient harbour services, automation and digitisation of port transactions, port security, energy efficiency and training and retraining of its employees.
Maritime experts believe that the NPA needs funds for improved port infrastructure, procurement of tug boats, and other operational platforms to achieve efficiency.
The value of NPA’s present tariff has since been suppressed by inflation which is at about 35 per cent, a maritime stakeholder, Joshua Asanga, said.
Asanga pointed out that liabilities like wages, fuel and other areas of expenditure have been on upward adjustment without a commensurate rise in NPA charges for over thirty years.
The ICIR can report that several challenges hinder efficient operations in Nigerian ports, particularly in Apapa, Lagos.
Added to the infrastructure decay and effectively digitalised information communication technology system are high levels of corruption across the port corridors.
Others include violent toll collection, frequent harassment and attacks on business owners, forceful collection of illegal taxes, truck congestion, indiscriminate extortion and other corrupt practices frustrating importation and exportation activities carried out at the ports.
In 2022, a former NPA managing director, Mohammed Bello-Koko, said the agency was committed to eliminating systemic corruption at the ports, however, a report by The ICIR in 2023 revealed that the issues continue to impede operations in Apapa port.