The Nigerian Ports Authority has said raised the alarm that the Tin Can Island port is collapsing, saying that more attention should be focused more on rehabilitating the quay walls of the port, in order to avert a total dysfunction.
Speaking over the weekend, the Managing Director of NPA, Mr. Mohammed Bello-Koko, said that the agency had taken a holistic review of the decaying parts of the ports.
He added that the agency had started discussing with some lending agencies, stressing that the agency did not have intentions to borrow.
Bello-Koko said that the introduction of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act meant that renewal of concession agreement for terminal operators was no longer done the way it used to be done.
“Tin-Can Island Port is practically collapsing. We need to focus our budget towards the rehabilitation of those quay walls at the Tin-Can port. We have taken a holistic review of decaying infrastructures at our ports and have decided that it is very important that we rehabilitate Tin-Can and Apapa port.
“What we have done is to start talking to lending agencies, even though we don’t intend to lend. We are asking how much money they will invest in the port terminals.”
He said his agency was asking those whose leases had expired how much they would they be investing in the ports.
The NPA boss also said that before the agency would renew the concession agreement of some terminal operators, there must be an agreement on the development of the ports.
