Abubakar Dantsoho, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), officially resumed on Monday.
He said his main goal is to reposition the NPA for increased productivity and greater efficiency for improved revenue generation.
During the inaugural address at the handing over of leadership at the authority’s headquarters on Monday, Dantsoho said the authority under his watch would rise to the intense competition from neighbouring countries.
He assured the NPA would improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance the overall user experience at the nation’s ports.
“Our objectives can be achieved through our collective efforts and collaboration will be the cornerstone of our success. We will pay closer attention to staff welfare by ensuring timely payment of emoluments, and compensations and addressing issues of training and capacity development particularly for deserving employees who add value in their areas of deployment,” he said.
Dantsoho said the authority will continue the digital transformation and reinforce the current efforts at deploying the Port Community System (PCS) to automate port processes and eliminate leakages and corruption.
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He said the authority will pay attention to the logistics that surround the arrival of cargo along the port corridor.
“We will drive port rehabilitation and modernisation, pay attention to the logistics that surround the arrival of cargoes along the port corridor, receipt at the terminals, loading onboard ships, and cargo evacuation from our ports.
“We shall enhance collaboration and communication between sister agencies and promote stakeholder engagement, promote transparency, accountability, and ease of doing business in our ports. We will begin engagement with terminal operators and shipping lines as primary recipients of our services to feel their pulse,” he said.
Earlier, Mohammed Bello-Koko, immediate-past managing director of NPA, said his administration repositioned the Authority for greater operational efficiency and unprecedented revenue generation and remittance to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federation.
Bello-Koko applauded the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
He said he was able to position the Authority for improved efficiency, revenue generation, accountability, and adherence to international best practices in port management and operations.
“We were able to reposition the Authority for greater operational efficiency and unprecedented revenue generation and remittance to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We have made the Authority far better than we met it, and now handing over to a management team of distinguished professionals with the requisite character, competence, and capacity to sustain and indeed surpass the current performance trajectory.
“The Authority under the management team I was privileged to lead was able to improve efficiency, revenue generation, accountability, and adherence to international best practices in port management and operations. For us to succeed as a nation, we must learn from the mistakes of others and evaluate their success stories.
He listed some of their achievements including obtaining necessary approvals for the Lekki Deep Seaport to become fully operational, promoting the non-oil export drive by setting up 10 Export Processing Terminals (EPTs), mainstreaming it to the NXP and e-call up system to facilitate exports, leading to a foreign trade surplus as highlighted in the NBS report.
Bello-Koko said the authority upgraded its data centre, servers, Storage, and business continuity and established a data recovery and protection unit with an up-to-date data protection audit certification.
“We digitised staff attendance for accountability and improved productivity, ensured the sustainability and free flow of cargo by clearing the decade-long traffic gridlock menacing the Apapa and Tin-Can Island port complexes, and its environs. We Provided aids to navigation such as buoys, fenders, and bollards across all the ports, and also enhanced seaside operations by providing marine crafts, pilot cutters, tugboats, and mooring boats to improve port efficiency.
“These efforts led to a reduction in both vessel and truck turnaround times from an average of 6.5 days to five days for vessels, and 10 days to a few hours for trucks.
“We recorded an unprecedented growth in revenue generation and remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund from revenue of N381 billion in 2022 and N501 billion in 2023 to N541 billion in the first half of 2024. Remittances to CRF increased from N93.4 billion in 2022 to N206 billion in 2023 and to N255 billion in the first half of 2024 – surpassing year-on-year total revenue generation and remittances,” he explained.
Bello-Koko added that his administration also remitted the unprecedented tax to the Federal Government of about N60 billion in the period of his stewardship.
