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Importers are in for a good time as the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said it is willing to increase tariff relief by as much as 30 percent for service providers, as part of a multi-pronged approach to attract more vessel and cargo traffic to the Eastern ports.
NPA’s Managing Director, Mohammed Bello Koko, dropped the good news while addressing a stakeholders’ forum held on Thursday, while on an assessment tour of facilities in Port Harcourt and Onne Ports, in company of his Management Team and other senior NPA officers.
He explained that the proposed move is being considered having observed that a similar concession of a 10 percent rebate granted by the Authority to terminal operators some years back failed to yield the desired result, as shipping traffic to these ports witnessed no significant growth.
According to him, the Authority is already considering the proposal for a 30 percent tariff rebate being sought by the terminal operators at these Ports. He however warned that such a request would not be automatic but conditional.
The tariff relief that we will provide will be based on the commensurate impact it will have on cargo and vessel traffic, he stressed.
Koko said “Some years ago, we provided tariff discounts, a kind of rebate, but that didn’t bring the expected impact on traffic into the port. We are reviewing the request from the terminal operators for a 30 percent discount but we need to make it clear that we won’t just give a rebate without some conditions.
“Discussions have started, it might be lower or higher than 30 percent, we also will adopt a timeline. For instance, we might say this relief is for a year and let’s see the impact. We wouldn’t want to give a tariff discount to a terminal operator, who, for instance, brings in four vessels in a month and even with the rebate, he still brings in the same four or even fewer vessels. That is not what we want”.
He specifically said explained that “We want to see increased activities at the ports and we want to encourage more cargo coming to the Eastern ports. Some of the terminals are now involved in the processing of exports, which is very key and important for us as an Authority, it is also necessary for Nigeria to export more agro-products and locally produced goods, these are part of the things that will guide the amount of tariff relief we give to our terminal operators”.
“Most of the ports in the East, their problem is the draught of the channel and that is what we are looking at. It is not just to reconstruct the quays, we also need to dredge deeper so that bigger vessels can come in and the economy of scale will set in and then you will be able to attract more cargo volumes.
We are beginning to see
increased activities in Onne and we are determined to replicate this in other ports along the Eastern corridor”, the NPA MD said.
Speaking on his observations during the tour, Bello Koko commended Messrs. Ports and Terminals Limited (PTOL) and BUA Terminal Limited, operating at the Port Harcourt port, for their commitment towards rehabilitating the superstructure at their terminals.
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