A total of 849,175 twenty equivalent units (TEUs) of containerised imports were received in Nigerian ports in the first six months of 2022, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has said.
The seaports also received a total of 1,992 ships with an aggregate gross registered tonnage of 60.2 million tons within the period under review.
Mohammed Bello-Koko, the managing director of the NPA disclosed this in the authority’s half-year report,which was made available to BusinessDay.
According to him, a total of 132,543 units of imported vehicles and 38,672,392 metric tons of bulk cargo were also received in the port during the period under review.
“The average turnaround time of vessels, indicating port efficiency, stood at 5.16 days. This is an improvement, and we are strategizing to perform better in the second half of the year,” the NPA boss said.
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In terms of revenue, he said, the NPA generated the sum of N172.29 billion between January and June 2022, and remitted N78.49 billion into the Federal Government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) account.
Giving a breakdown of the revenue, Bello-Koko said that N50,255,925,779.20 represents cash remittances, the compulsory deduction of 25 percent of revenue generated and other sundry payments for the period of January and June 2022.
He said the remaining sum of N28,241,041,083.00 relates to the remittance with respect to other periods.
Bello-Koko further explained that despite the global economic and inflation crises, which has reduced purchasing power and led to scarcity of foreign exchange that has negatively affected business environment, government revenue and constrained expenditure, the half-year operational statistics were encouraging.
“The development in the port industry cannot be severed from the macroeconomic environment with galloping inflation that has grossly reduced the disposable income of households, the depreciating exchange rates that stifle the business environment and the dwindling government revenue that constrains expenditure,” he said.
Continuing, he said “In the face of these harsh macroeconomic indices, the Nigerian Ports Authority has moved on to deliver port and harbour services to the terminal operators in the export and import businesses across the country.”
Bello-Koko however assured that NPA remained committed to providing improved services to increase efficiency at the nation’s seaports.
