The Nigerian Inland Water Authority (NIWA) will be completing the concessioning of the long- awaited Onitsha River Port in Anambra State by the end of October this year, Damladi Ibrahim, acting managing director, has said.
Ibrahim, who disclosed this in Lagos recently during the third Maritime Stakeholder’s Interactive Session, said all the processes for the concessioning of the river port had been completed.
This is coming six years after the Federal Government under the then administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, invested over N4.6 billion in rebuilding the abandoned Port and, a year after NIWA announced that it had finally secured a concessionaire to manage the port.
Onitsha Port holds huge economic implications to businesses located in the commercial Eastern cities of Onitsha, Nnewi and Aba, which would as a result of the concession, have the privilege to forgo the transportation of over N500,000 per container to take delivery of their consignments from Ports in Lagos.
According to Ibrahim, the only remaining thing was for the authority to carry out its due diligence of visiting would-be concessionaire, which he said would probably be an investor that would be coming from Belgium.
NIWA recently announced arrangements to declare and gazette Onitsha River Port as Port of Origin for cargoes coming into the country from any part of the world and final destination to those going out of the country as export.
At the completion of the process, Onitsha River Port, will be recognised by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), as a port to which goods came be consigned from, and from where goods can also be consigned to, from any port located anywhere in the world.
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