NPA has not raised port tariff for 30 years – Bello-Koko

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello-Koko, has said the existing port tariff has been active for 30 years, therefore needing a review.

The NPA boss, who stated this on a TVC programme recently, also said towage services offered to ships on port calls to Nigeria were reviewed either in 2012 or 2014.

He said, “The last time the NPA increased its tariff was in 1993. Yes, the cost of doing business at the ports may be high, but we have not increased our tariff in the last 30 years.

“It was in 2012 or 2014 that the NPA increased the cost of towage. Every other tariff has remained as it is since 1993. The cost of doing business could be increasing, but it’s not attributable to the tariff and rates of the NPA.

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“What we did in 2012 was to harmonize the tariffs and merge them because there were so many. Before then, if anybody is looking for our tariffs, they will find many tariffs broken into pieces. So, what we did then was to merge them.”

Speaking further, Bello-Koko said the situation at Tin-Can Port is the worst even though every other port needs some level of rehabilitation too.

“So, what we have done is an authority-wide NEED assessment where we checked those infrastructures. After that, we made a decision that it is time we fully reconstructed those infrastructures. Our assessment showed that we need about $800m to rehabilitate all the ports.”