Work to resume at Lokoja river port soon – NIWA MD

Work on the abandoned Lokoja Inland River Port in Kogi State will soon resume, Dr. George Moghalu, the Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), has disclosed.

In an interactive session with journalists Wednesday in Lokoja, Dr. Moghalu said the authority’s management had been interfacing with the contractor handling the project on the matter following the approval of the revised contract sum by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

• Despite billions, Lokoja river port yet to be completed
• 8 months after commissioning, multi-billion naira Baro Port dormant

FEC had earlier in the year approved the Ministry of Transportation memo for N2bn revised cost for the completion of the project.

The approval places the total cost of the project at N6.4bn from the reviewed N4,112bn.

Moghalu noted that the Federal Government was committed to ensuring that the river port which was “critical to Nigeria’s waterways operation” was completed and operational.

He said despite the cessation of work on the main project due to some bottlenecks, the authority had been on site.

Daily Trust reports that work on the port has been dragging for the past eight years.

The project was first awarded to Messrs Foby Engineering Ltd at the cost of N2.3bn in 2007 and a mobilisation fee of N800m was paid.

But due to alleged inability of the contractor to perform, the contract was revoked, revised and subsequently re-awarded in the second quarter of 2012 to another company, Inter-Bau Construction Ltd, at the cost of N4,112bn.

The administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, which re-awarded the contract on March 23, 2012, gave 57 weeks as the expected period for the completion of the project, but work stalled in 2016 due to irreconcilable differences between the Federal Government and the construction firm.

Moghalu said with the approval of the revised cost, work on the project would be accelerated and completed in record time.