Financial independence will improve Ports Development — Rivers Port Manager, Adamu
…Says environment becoming attractive for investors
Mr Adamu Michael is the Port Manager, Rivers Port in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital. In this exclusive interview with Barth Ndubuwah, Ihuoma Okoronkwo and Ijeh Ekpowaji, he bares his mind on a number of issues as regards the development operations at Rivers Port. These include upgrade of facilities, taming of insecurity, concessionaires’ performance, among others. Excerpts:
We want to know some of the heights you have attained, so far since your assumption of duty here as the Port Manager?
I am always interested in developmental strides and investments in the ports system and I can assure you the interest of the executive management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is to ensure that Nigerian Ports serve as stations with stride that will improve the revenue of the ports and equally bring a focus to the slogan of the Nigerian ports.
For international trade, as you know, about 80 percent of the trade goes to the ports and the ports are considered very key and critical to the international trade. For Rivers Port, as you see, I resumed duty about 26th of February and within that period, we have so far experienced a lot of development stride. We have so far championed and sponsored by the executive management led by Mallam Bello Koko who is the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). We as port managers have equally encouraged each other and decided to imbibe our own policies and strategies that have been applied for the management. So, as you can see when you came into the port, Rivers Port, you can see it has taken a new shape and this is where we are heading to – improved infrastructure giving a very good corporate image that will attract and give confidence to investors who come to the port and transact genuine business. Along the line, we have discovered that improved security in the ports is one of the key issues that have existed in Rivers Port. When I reported here, we decided to sanitise the security architecture in the port. There has been the grace to improve on how to ensure that nobody is challenged in the area of security. There is no how you can have a system that does not have challenges, but in our simpler way, we have gotten a strategy for sharing intelligence on how to deal with such miscreants and that has led to the arrest of the Ogoni boy who has been harassing and even threatening the port system security wise. This is part of the achievements adopted by the security architecture within the port. You can see, in the port here we really have two terminals which are the major concessionaires that have leased the port system; the terminals for cargo operations and handling, so you can see the improvement that is going on, especially from the part of BUA and the parts of PTOL (Port Terminal Operators Limited). Port Terminal Operators Limited (PTOL) have engaged themselves with port terminal expansion for container reception terminal. BUA has engaged with the building of flour mills to equally increase the port inputs and port investments. These, when you look at them together, can easily and tremendously increase the revenue being generated by the Rivers port from the terminal operators as well as the Nigerian Ports Authority, likewise the Nigerian Customs Service in the aspect of duty to the job.
There is no system without challenges, with what you have said about the terminals and the concessionaires, is there any aspect of their operations that you are not comfortable with?
Yes, you wouldn’t say that they don’t err one way or the other, but with our Department of Monitoring and Compliance, we keep them in check and we make sure they don’t go off guards and out of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and the lease agreement that have been existing between us and the Terminal Operators.
Within the period you have handed over the terminal to them, talking about the concessionaires, have they upgraded their facilities?
Actually you know they inherited very weak infrastructure ab initio and so they have been doing their best to make sure that these infrastructures are revamped and given state of the art standard, especially when BUA took over the Berth 7 and Berth 8 that collapsed, and recently with Berth 4 that collapsed under PTOL. Now these people are already engaging contractors with the approval from the Nigerian Ports Authority to give quality attention to all these collapsed berths. So, you know very well that when you are developing a dead infrastructure, it does not come up easily. It has to go through Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and so on and all these things are already in the process. I am very sure that before the end of the year you will hear or see a different story, the entire Rivers Port, especially the infrastructure, will change.
How about the channels?
The channels are always undergoing dredging and so that is one of the key responsibilities of the Nigerian Ports Authority. So, we don’t allow that to hinder vessels from coming into the ports. Management is also ready to make sure that accessibility to the port is done without so many issues.
Still talking briefly on the challenges, you have told us a few challenges and they are constant so long as the operations continue to run. Do you think with the level of development and your supervision that Rivers Port is where it is supposed to be?
Yes, to be honest with you, when I assumed office here, I looked at it as a challenge that is worth the trouble and I can assure you that the stage where we are now, is an enviable level because what I met and what is on ground now has improved seriously. If you look at the port environment and the cleanliness, some of the buildings that had been looking so dirty, now they are blooming of recent. Very soon, our Managing Director will commission the renovated old Orient Building which has been an issue over the years and you can see that even the dirty walls are been painted, given a face lift to ensure that it conforms with the renovation efforts of our executive management. So, that is to tell you that the synergy being adopted is equally being imbibed by local Port Management to ensure that we deliver these projects and ensure that the environment is attractive for investors.
Well, NPA is Federal Government’s. Do you have challenges with funding in the course of your operations?
Funding can never be enough. You know very well that even Nigeria as a whole country is suffering from funding. We have been running our budgets on deficit, but thank God that Nigerian Ports Authority always sticks to it and that their budgets are utilised properly and appropriately to make sure that key critical infrastructures that are undergoing problems are addressed, so Nigerian Ports Authority is self funding. We generate our revenue and of course you know that what has to do with government establishments, Ministries and Agencies has to go through many protocols for approval – the National Assembly, the Presidency and so on. I wish we have that independence of just generating our own funds and utilising them for investment directly to the ports. But we have to go through the federal government.
Having given pass mark to the terminal operators, what is your message to the investors?
My message to the investors is that they should not shy away from the fact that no system runs without challenges. There is no investment that does not have its own challenges. Once there are no challenges, that means the whole system has collapsed. It is these challenges that make you discover some areas that you are.
The truth is that they are improving and we are supporting them. They are responding although sometimes they say that the tongue and the teeth bite each other in the mouth, likewise we do have issues and we do come together on the roundtable to resolve them to make sure that they are in order and by that way you discover that investors could be encouraged to come and do business. For instance, some investors came from Kenya with intention to acquire green areas for port development and we had advised them of such and we directed them to the Head office where such issues can be addressed.
