Mohammed Bello-Koko, the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has been named the 2022 maritime icon of the year by Champion Newspapers for fast-tracking the approval processes leading to the take-off of Nigeria’s first deep seaport and unprecedented revenue generation.
Bello-Koko also raised the Ports’ Authority remittances to consolidated revenue fund and recorded milestone steps towards the deployment of the Port Community System (PCS) to lay the groundwork for the National Single Window, which is necessary to tackle the challenge of the duplicity of functions by government agencies and attendant delays at the ports.
According to the organisers of the award, the NPA MD is facilitating export and driving the use of ports in the eastern region.
They said Bello-Koko has also injected fresh impetus into the authority by making it an agency of choice that contributed immensely to the economic and social development of the country.
Nwadiuto Iheakanwa, the group managing director of Champion Newspapers, said Bello-Koko’s ingenuity has made the nation’s seaports surmount some of the known challenges that have made the nation’s ports largely inefficient over the years.
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“Our findings, largely corroborated by independent assessors, confirm that NPA under your management in the last four years has through your exemplary leadership skills sustained excellence and contributed to economic and social development,” Iheakanwa said.
Iheakanwa listed infrastructure deficits, policy and regulatory inconsistencies, overlapping functions, duplication of roles among ministries, departments, and agencies operating at the ports, and high incidence of infractions as some of the challenges facing the port in the past.
Iheakanwa said that Bello-Koko is described as a pragmatic leader that has distinguished himself, a dynamic business administrator, an innovative manager, and a technocrat.
“We note, with delight that you are first among the leading Chief Executive Officers in Nigeria that have distinguished themselves but also shown a high degree of integrity and transparency in both private and public affairs. Since you assumed office, you have demonstrated the passion, dedication, competence, commitment, and dynamism required to build a leading port in the world today,” Iheakanwa added.
