- As Hadiza Usman pledges to recruit youthful professionals
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Cross Rivers State Government have agreed on new modalities to make the proposed Bakassi deep seaport in the State a reality, while reviving the dwindling glory of the Calabar Port.
The State Governor, Ben Ayade who indicated this during the visit of the NPA Managing Director, Hadiza Usman to Cross River also noted that this was in line with the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari to boost the economy of the people while directly impacting positively on the displaced and hitherto, neglected Bakassi people.
Speaking while receiving Hadiza Usman on Wednesday, the Governor recalled how President Muhammadu Buhari had given his commitment on timely completion of the deep seaport, eulogizing Buhari as a “man of integrity” who has kept faith by insisting that there should be regular reports from him, on progress being made on the proposed Bakassi deep seaport.
Ben Ayade, Cross River State governor
He also lauded Mr. President for appointing a young, dynamic and youthful managing director for NPA, stressing that the fact that Hadiza Usman actually made Calabar her first port of visit, underscored to him, the fact that the “Bakassi deep seaport is a reality’’.
“This is one of the fastest seaports under construction. The port will have a draught of 16 metres to attract huge cargo traffic,’’ Ayade indicated also.
“The Bakasi people of Cross River State who had been displaced by no fault of theirs had been denied all rights.
“The deep seaport is meant to provide a new economic base and give the Bakassi people a sense of belonging.
“By the time the deep seaport takes off, they would then recognise that the President felt for them,’’ he observed further, positing that there would no longer be any excuse why Panamax vessels would not be berthing in the country, once the Port which is only 90 km away from Calabar is commissioned; aside from about 100 Chinese firms who have shown interest to come and resume construction and manufacturing.
He however, urged for special attention from the NPA management in respect of the need for the capital and maintenance
dredging of the Calabar port which he noted had remained “a big challenge’’, pointing out that the Calabar port would serve as a transitport to support the mother vessels that would be operating at the Bakassi deep seaport.
“We will provide supervision for the dredging of the Calabar Port. We will do our best to support you in thedredging of the Calabar Port.
“The Bakassi Deep Seaport is not in conflict with the Calabar port. Rather, it was borne out of the necessity to provide a new economic hope to the people of Bakassi.
“The port will restore the hope of the people of Bakasi and they will know that the President cares for them, ‘’, allaying any fear of unhealthy rivalry between the two ports.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Usman, says the authority will commence the recruitment of younger professionals into the service in view of the ageing workforce.
Usman disclosed this at a news conference on Thursday to round off her tour of Calabar port.
According to her, there is a lot of skills and knowledge that need to be transferred and we should be able to transfer knowledge and skills.
Usman said that the authority would embark on recruitment drive and look at the organisational structure to determine how the recruitment would be carried out.
She said that the management was looking at succession planning and recruitment of people.
“We met an arrangement on ground concerning the decision to recruit as the present workforce is ageing.
“We want to recruit specialists, mariners, critical operational staff. These are those positions that we will be targeting.
“We encourage every member of the public to be on the look-out for the advertisement of vacancies and to apply,’’ Usman said.
She said that the 10-year old port concession exercise is due for a review holistically, adding that the review will broadly examine all facets of the terms of port concession engagement.
The managing director said the review would cover areas like financing models and the concession environment.
According to her, 10 years after, we have to revisit the concession exercise because we believe it is time to do that.
She said: “We would reach out to the ICRC and they would be part of the review.’’
Usman said that as the nation’s economic climate changes, there was need to adjust.
She also said that many agencies including the NNPC were indebted to the NPA to the tune of huge monies, adding that the management will proceed aggressively to recover the debts.
On the need to dredge the Calabar port, she said that the management held a meeting on Thursday with the Calabar Channel management, adding that NPA has requested for the hydrographic survey done by the company in the past.
Usman said: “There is critical need to resolve the issue to make the draught deeper.’’
In protecting the revenue of the organisation, the managing director assured that the management would look at whatever financing models were put in place and would not accept anybody short changing the Federal Government.
According to her, there are areas of revenue leakages and NPA had put in place e-payment system to prevent data manipulation as the authority moved toward the Single Window Regime.
She solicited the support of the staff as the management would bring policy decisions that might be tough.
Usman said that all operators were aware that we would only accept dollar-denominated payments.
On projects, she promised to ensure that capital projects have impact on the authority’s revenue drive.
She said that the management had spoken with the Cross River Government to partner and open up the Calabar port.
The managing director described the port as the closest to the North East and “is important for us to revive that route so that the mineral deposits in the North would be exported abroad through the port’’.
Usman mentioned that the authority had a 25-year port master plan that would take into consideration all that the Nigerian ports need.
“We believe that the capacity of the ports might not be fully utilised now. This is critical to us as we seek for port development across the country,’’ Usman said.
