The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Abubakar Dantsoho, mentioned exports from Nigeria have elevated by over 25 per cent in the final two years as a result of federal authorities policies.
He said this whereas talking on the ongoing Annual World Ports Conference in London, organised by the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH).
According to him, Nigeria’s inhabitants provides it an immense benefit amongst its friends in West and Central Africa, including that latest reforms have additionally massively elevated cargo by way of places.
Specifically, he mentioned, “So for us in Nigeria, the most important thing is that we are seeing growth as a result of this policy that we are taking. Statistically, the exports from Nigeria in the last two years have increased by 25% And then these are exports that are not mainly only oil and ga;, in terms of oil and gas like I mentioned, we are doing fantastically around that, but then also in the other areas of manufacturing and agriculture, you know, raw materials like cocoa, like cashew and all that. Volumes have increased and that this is to the credit of the partnership that we have between ourselves and the major terminal operators APM Terminals.”
Mr Dantsoho mentioned the NPA has every thing in place to maintain export growth including that this was why it arrange the Export Processing Terminal.
“We have got about four of those in Nigeria where we collaborate with the terminal operators, with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and other agencies that have a stake. So that everything regarding the processing of the cargo for export is done locally, so that by the time it is exported out of Nigeria, there will not be issues regarding standards,” he added.
He mentioned Nigeria is best positioned at present to make the most of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCTA) on account of the reforms of the current administration.
“Nigeria’s economy is very strong now because of our president’s reforms, which everyone can testify are attracting investors to the country. So because of that, we are leading other African countries to ensure that we export or trade within ourselves in a free and fair manner. So between, for example, Nigeria and Morocco, there’s a lot of exchange of ideas because Morocco is now a hub for manufacturing of electric cars and other smaller cars,” Mr Dantsoho added.
The reforms, he added, had been the rationale why Nigeria had two ports in the highest 20 in the newest world ports rating by the World Bank.
The NPA boss affirmed, “This is the result of hard work and efficiency, because we are collaborating efficiently. And so we have identified that this is getting us a lot of good results. It’s result-oriented, it’s technology-based. So we are going to continue to consolidate on the relationship we have with major players in Morocco and South Africa.”
He mentioned that on account of the reforms, income from ports throughout Nigeria has quadrupled.
“We have skilled numerous enhance in volumes and income that has been generated by the ports throughout Nigeria, and it’s strictly due to the collaboration between us and different international locations. As a matter of reality, the effectivity in the ports in Nigeria is much better now than these of different West African international locations.
“I’m saying this as a result of because the president of Association of Ports in West and Central Africa, we’ve got the identical dashboard to know the efficiency of different ports in the areas. There has additionally been enchancment in Tanzania and Kenya. So it’s an excellent feeling that this collaboration is getting us the specified outcomes and we’ve got to consolidate and in addition make it possible for we progress on time in order that we don’t permit the detraction to start to sluggish us down.
He mentioned the federal authorities in planning for the medium to long run is investing $1 billion to develop and modernise the Apapa ports.
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“So growth and modernisation of infrastructure requires that we collaborate with non-public sector folks. And in that space, like I mentioned, we’re working with APMT, we’re working with different larger gamers who have gotten the capital. But this can be a venture that requires numerous funding. You should put some huge cash to have the ability to try this. We are additionally working with some companions to develop our know-how. So for instance, in latest instances, like a 12 months in the past, we had a partnership with a agency from Singapore.
“We have developed a simple window system. And right now, we are also working with the with another company from Abu Dhabi to develop the port community system. It is not only us partnering with the private sector, there’s also in the private sector, business-to-business relationship,” he mentioned.
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