The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) says it is going into strategic partnerships as well as encouraging exports to achieve its revenue targets of $1.2bliion for 2016. The Managing Director of the NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi who mentioned this in Lagos said the NPA is already reaching out to the Export Promotion Council and the ministries of Agriculture and Solid Minerals to work out other means of assisting in diversifying revenue sources for government, especially in growing exports for the country.
According to the NPA MD, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) may even surpass its targets if the current economic indices improve. He said the agency is also set to dedicate some port terminals to export Hubs for Agriculture and Solid Mineral. There are proposals for ports that will be solely dedicated to the export of agricultural produce and the Ilaje port in Ondo for solid mineral export. He said the NPA is already working out a strategy with the Customs on how to achieve this milestone. According to him the terminal operators are also being re-oriented to support the success of the programme.
Mallam Abdulahi said this will not only help in the diversification process of the economy but will also compensate for the revenue the ports are losing, as there is the urgent need to utilise the many containers that are lying idle in the ports , and being taken away empty.
For Abdullahi, the primary responsibility of the NPA is to raise more revenues for government and work to assist in expanding the economy and ensure nation’s dependence on oil is reduced significantly. This the NPA is doing by encouraging export promotion and foreign direct investment.
Mallam Abdulahi also stated that the agency is working assiduously to ensure smooth operations at the ports. According to him they have so far has developed an inter-modal type of transportation system, railways and motor roads within the ports to ease congestions in the Lagos ports and that of the Port Harcourt ports recorded up to 93 percent completion.
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