…Inaugurates Red Cross in Calabar Port for emergency responses***

The Antwerp Port International (PAI) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Wednesday entered into a collaborative agreement with a sole aim of ensuring mutually beneficial gains, meant to further boost productivity and increase revenue of the Nigerian Government.

The collaboration which will mainly take the form of training and consulting, underlines not only the leading role that the port of Antwerp plays in West Africa, but also the determination of the NPA Managing Director, Hadiza Bala-Usman to see the Nigerian ports entrench global practices.

Presently, the Port of Antwerp is envied as a market Leader In West Africa, and revered in Africa as the maritime centre of Europe, in view of its numerous supply chain connections. Out of all the ports in North-West Europe, Antwerp has the highest number of direct services to West Africa, resulting in a market share of nearly 50%. The annual volume of West African freight amounts to 15 million tonnes. Nigeria, with a volume of 6 million tonnes, accounts for the largest part; and all trends and indicators show that this share in the statistics will continue to grow in the coming years.

The PAI delegation in consolidation of its mission, first visited the port of Lagos, for a guided tour of the port, after which Kristof Waterschoot, the PAI and APEC CEO and Hadiza Bala Usman, the CEO NPA, represented by the Executive Director, Marine and Operations, Dr. Sekonte Davies signed the MoU, signifying the commencement of a desired seamless collaboration agreement between both ports.

Under the terms of this agreement the port of Antwerp will play an advisory role with regard to the further development of the port at Lagos. In addition, structural training will play an important role. Several port professionais from Lagos have already come over to Antwerp for tailor-made trainings by APEC. This training centre of the port of Antwerp organises tailor-made training courses for maritime personnel worldwide in view of maximising the efficiency of port operations.

Dr. Sekonte Davies

Kristaf Waterschoot, CEO of PAI and APEC, explained: “We see a lot of potential in the port of Lagos.

Thanks to the growing economy, the freight transport with Europe has increased substantially. By means of this collaboration we can use our know-how to advise the port of Lagos in its further development. It underlines the ambition of PAI to consolidate and further develop its already strong position in West Africa.”

Speaking in the same vein, Annick De Ridder, Vice Mayor of the Port of Antwerp stated: “With an annual volume of 16 million tons, West Africa takes a large share in the traffic of Port Of Antwerp. It is therefore our ambition to further strengthen our position in West-Africa. We want to play our role as a community builder and together with our subsidiary Port of Antwerp International, we aim to pass on our know-how and experience. With this mission we’re engaging ourselves to create a sustainable future for African Ports and developing the worldwide network of our own port to ensure further growth for years to come.”

Apart from the visit to the Lagos port, the participants of the mission, among whom representatives of the Port of Antwerp and different shipping companies, terminal operators and logistics service providers, would also attend a port seminar and different networking events for the benefit of the Antwerp entrepreneurs.

In addition, they will visit the Eko Atlantic project, an extension of the city into the sea, and the Dangote project in Lekki, a new refinery complex and additional deep-sea port.

“Our role as community builder goes further than our Iocal port commmunity. With our subsidiary PAI we aim to pass on our know-how and experience so as to further develop the worldwide network of our own part and to engage in a sustainable future for African ports. Our collaboration with Lagos is a perfect example of this. It is our ambition to further strengthen our position in West-Africa, which is one of the reasons for this mission to Benin and Nigeria. We hope that this mission will create new fruitful contacts, new connections and new business opportunities in order to ensure further growth for years to come”, Annick De Ridder highlighted further.

For Nigeria, the collaboration is expected to evolve a synergy to make other positive things happen more rapidly.

The Authority was established in 1954 by an Act of Parliament [Port Act, CAP 155 Laws of the federation of Nigeria and Lagos 1955; currently NPA Act CAP N126 LFN, 2004) to control and maintain the seaports as well as load and discharge cargo.

Its operations started on 1 April 1955. On 17 June 1992 the Authority was incorporated as a public liability company under the provision under the provision of the companies and allied matters act 1990 as a wholly owned government company. In 1999 the status of the authority reverted to an agency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Ministry of Transport remains the supervising Ministry.

The NPA has six functional Ports located within The Western and Eastern Axis. They are Lagos Ports Complex, Tin Can Island Port Complex, Rivers Port, Delta Port, Onne Port, And Calabar Port. It is into Joint Venture with Bonny Channel Management Company, Lagos Channel Management Company and Calabar Channel Management Company.

Summary of cargo throughput within the six Ports in 2018 is placed at 73,176,127.

The Federal Government of Nigeria initiated the drive to improve efficiency with its Port reforms programme, implemented in 2005/2006 and adopted the landlord model of Port Management. The key principle of this concession model is to transfer cargo operational obligations to private operators whiie retaining public ownership of the Port infrastructure.

The Concession plan is to span a period of 10 to 25 years on the basis of long-term leases. Terminals were delineated by cluttering two to four berths and offered to bidders via international competitive tenders. However, terminals with existing sitting tenants who had substantial private investment were given concession on negotiated transactions. The Authority has staff strength of 4011 with Emmanuel Adesoye as the Chairman Board of Directors and Hadiza Bala Usman as the Managing Director who is responsible for the day to day running of the Management.

In the meantime, the NPA Boss, Mrs Hadiza Usman, on Wednesday inaugurated a detachment of the Nigerian Red Cross to tackle emergency situations in Calabar Port in Cross River.

Also read:  NPA photo news

Speaking at the occasion in Calabar, the Managing Director who was represented by Mr Adeola Adebola, Head, Health Safety and Environment stressed that the authority was committed to ensuring operational peace and safety, and thanked the Nigerian Red Cross Society in the state for inaugurating the detachment.

She expressed optimism that the essence of setting up the detachment would not be defeated.

Mr Ottor Ottor, Vice Chairman, Red Cross Society, Cross River chapter said that the society’s job was purely humanitarian.

“This detachment is another chapter in the services of the Calabar Port, with this, we are helping to extend humanitarian service in the port,” he said.

In his response, newly inaugurated Commandant of the detachment, Dr Chijioke Ukadike said the vision was to create an operational environment where every staff would be First Aid savvy.

Ukadike said the team’s emphasis on safety was due to the volatile operational environment at the port.

He said that the Red Cross team would partner other sister organizations within the port for effective service delivery.

The event witnessed the hoisting of the Red Cross flag and oath taking by the inductees.