The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) on Thursday said the Federal Government’s idea of making Burutu Port in Delta State a transshipment port was to boost Nigeria’s economy and reduce congestion in Lagos ports.
George Moghalu, managing director/chief executive officer of NIWA, made this known when he paid a visit to the Burutu Port for an on-the-spot assessment of facilities in the port.
Moghalu said the Federal Government was committed to ensuring that the Burutu Port becomes fully operational soon.
He said the Federal Government was also keen on encouraging partnership with private individuals to boost the economy of the country.
“NIWA as an institution, we are ready to partner private sector players, create the enabling environment and ease the regulations that were in place. We are going to do whatever we have to do to ensure all partners and investors who are ready to partner with us have a fair level playing field to make their businesses grow,” Moghalu said.
“I want to assure you that Burutu Port will not be an exception. We appreciate the strategic position of this port and we are going to do all we can to ensure this port is brought to life. The facilities are there, though more still has to be put in place. What we intend to do is to encourage this port as transshipment port so that vessels can move from Lagos to Burutu and from Burutu they can be taken by batches to the various inland ports,” he said.
“Burutu port is very strategic. Everyone is concerned about the congestion in Lagos, so we are concerned about how we can move cargoes to the hinterland easily,” he said.
Moghalu said NIWA was not only interested in just building the ports but it wants to make them active and fully operational so that Lagos ports can be decongested.
Earlier, Mohammed Dagana, Warri Area manager of NIWA, told Moghalu, who made a brief stopover at his office, that the Warri Area office was facing challenges of logistics, environment and security.
He, however, noted that the area office through a well-structured internal working mechanism has recorded significant achievements in training boat operators, issuance of SPDC boat licence, revenue generation and creating strategic corporate relationship with security agencies and sister parastatals, amongst others.
Kenneth Donye, chairman, Akewa Colmar Ltd, who recently signed an MoU with the Delta State government to develop the Burutu Port, said port is naturally positioned to be the feeder port to other inland ports along the Rivers Niger and Benue route, since the port is at the base of coastal part of the River Niger.
He said that with NIWA visit, the synergy between Burutu port and NIWA national mandate of making Nigeria’s rivers navigable and commercially viable would help accelerate economic development in all parts of the country.
“We want to publicly appreciate NIWA for considering using this port as a transshipment hub for container transportation from Lagos/Onne to Onitsha.
“This will be one of the biggest achievements of this management team as the Lagos congestion has become a major challenge to the Federal Government, importers/exporters, shippers, NPA as well as all users in the country,” Donye said.
