Mohammed Bello Koko the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is very much excited with the developmental strides and economic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR. He stated this recently when he visited the port access road where the traffic gridlock was recently cleared by the NPA. He praised the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola’s leadership and hands on approach to driving the industry. He stated that these have attracted global applause which no doubt is responsible for the transformation of the maritime industry and massive improvement in revenue generation by the Authority. Bello-Koko noted that, despite global economic downturn that characterized the year 2023, the NPA succeeded in maintaining momentum to surpass its impressive performance of the year 2022. This is seen as part of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda as he said that sanity has since returned to the ports access roads which will be sustained to promote ease of doing business and drive exports to enhance Nigeria’s balance of trade. “The implementation of continuous performance improvement measures resulted in unprecedented revenue generation and remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federation, with revenues steadily growing from N361 billion in 2022 to N501 billion as of December 2023 and remittances increasing from N93.4 billion in 2022 to N131.2 billion by year-end 2023,” Bello-Koko said. It could be recalled that Bello-Koko was recently appointed by President Tinubu to the implementation committee of the National Single Window Project, added that “taxes paid to the Government of the Federation also grew at various times in the period under review up to $77.7 million and N17.6 billion, respectively.” He went further to say that “the foregoing, added to the strategic forecasts set to be actualized in 2024 such as the $1billion worth reconstruction of Tin Can Island Ports Complex and the comprehensive rehabilitation of Apapa, Rivers, Onne, Warri and Calabar Ports Complexes. "New Ports Developments viz; Badagry Deep Seaport, Snake Island, Burutu and Ondo Deep Seaports, the Port Community System PCS and the National Single Window amongst other initiatives for port competitiveness being aggressively implemented. "It is evident that the Nigerian Ports Authority has been positioned not only to create but sustain superior performance necessary to maximize the comparative advantages that Nigeria’s maritime endowments confer,” the NPA boss stated. Meanwhile, the Chief Operating Officer COO of Lekki Port, Laurence Smith, has charged stakeholders to work together to unlock the full potential of the Nigerian maritime industry so that Nigeria can become a major player in global trade. He made this assertion during the BusinessDay Maritime Conference which took place on Thursday, 13th June 2024 where he spoke on the topic “Nigerian Maritime: Unlocking Potential, Overcoming Challenges.” While applauding NPA for investing hundreds of dollars to upgrade its facilities, he urged all other government agencies located in all the ports to devise a long-term strategy for multimodal evacuation of cargo. Also speaking at the event, the Managing Director/CEO of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko announced that the Authority and the Nigeria Customs Service will now collaborate to actualize 24-hour port operations and ensure cargo owners take delivery of their consignments without delays. He noted that this will now consequently reduce non-tariff trade barrier. He did not also forget to mention some challenges that could hinder this. “During the panel discussion, I emphasized the significant trade barriers in Nigeria, including fiscal and monetary policies, and challenges such as the multiplicity of government agencies, deteriorating port infrastructure, and inadequate power supply. “As a government agency vital to the nation’s economic revival, we are committed to addressing these trade barriers and implementing measures to revitalize and strengthen the economy,” he said among other things.
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