Kasim Sumaina in Abuja
The Management of National Inland Water Ways Authority has formally handed over the instrument of authority to Elysium Consortium Limited, the Concessionaire of Onitsha river port to begin operation.
The Managing Director, NIWA, Dr. George Moghalu while lamenting on the time taken for the process to be completed, which he said was expected, being the first port to be concenssioned in Nigeria, however noted that the Authourity gained experience concessioning the port which is first in the maritime sector will speed up other port concessioning process in the country.
The NIWA boss while speaking to Journalists on the sidelines of the event in Abuja, said: “You cannot even quantify the challenges. First of all, you are doing something you haven’t done before and as we speak, Onitsha River Port successful concession, is the first in the maritime industry. So, the first time is certainly different.”
According to him, if by the time we do the second, third and fourth ones like we have on the pipeline, they are certainly not going to take as much time this first one took because, “we have learnt on the job.
Moghalu added: “And when you are doing this type of thing, you must do it properly in line with international best practice and PPP arrangements on concessioning processes is not a Nigerian thing, it has international standard that must be followed because you can’t change the rules because we are involved.”
