Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt
The Board of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) is set to resuscitate sea ports in the eastern part of Nigeria for improved service delivery by addressing the infrastructure challenges that have hampered their efficiency.
This was disclosed yesterday in Port Harcourt by the Chairman of the Board of the NPA, Emmanuel Adesoye, when he addressed journalists shortly after a meeting between members of the board and stakeholders of Rivers Port Complex, Port Harcourt.
Adesoye explained that members of the NPA’s board were on assessment tour of the situation in all the Eastern Ports.
He said: “You have seen that we have been to Calabar Port, we have been to Onne Port, and today, we are in Rivers Port. We are here to assess the situation in all the Eastern Ports.
“We have done that in Lagos Ports and the Western Ports before. We are having on-the-spot assessment of situation in Eastern Ports.
“The staffs of the Rivers Port are very committed and I have seen their enthusiasm. The issue of infrastructure is being addressed by the management of NPA.”
Earlier in his welcome address at the stakeholders meeting, the Port Manager of Rivers Port Complex, Yunusa Ibrahim Anji, decried the encroachment of NPA’s property by host communities.
Anji identified the lack of finger jetty at the NPA dockyard as one of the challenges facing the Rivers Port Complex and called on the NPA’s management to provide another tug boat to assist the complex’s only functional tug boat, MT Otuoke, which has been out of commission since April 2017.
