NPA assures investors a level playing field for business growth 

 Determined to put an end to the lingering issue of monopoly in handling oil and gas cargo in the nation’s port industry, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has reassured private investors of its resolve to ensure that they have a level playing field to grow their business.

Hadiza Bala-Usman, managing director of NPA, gave the assurance during a facility tour of the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL) base in Apapa pilotage district. She said that this would allow for more meaningful competition among operators for the best of the economy especially in the area of revenue generation.

She said that government was interested in making sure that local content was strictly adhered by businesses operating within the country in order to create employment for Nigerians and boost their standards of living.

“We will look at all issues as it relates to making Nigeria a hub. We will ensure that there is transparency and accountability in port operations so that all port related businesses will thrive. I am impressed at the level of investments here, and your drive to boost local content,” the NPA boss said.

Earlier in her welcome speech, Amy Jadesimi, managing director of LADOL, who took the visiting team on a tour of the fabrication yard of $3.8 billion Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO), known as Egina project, said that the project is first of its kind in Africa, and its completion and operation would help the nation take its pride of place as the regional hub in West Africa.

According to her, the FPSO vessel with a length of 340 meters and 70 meters wide, has reached an advanced stage of completion and the entire project had already gulped no less than $4 billion dollars in which LADOL had put in $500 million in local content. “Our mission and vision has been to see a situation where Nigeria will join its foreign counterparts such as Korea, China in creating industrial zones because private indigenous investment is critical to economic growth.”

Jadesimi therefore appealed to NPA management to not only ensure a level playing field for all operators, but also ensure local collaboration between private players and between the private and public sector.

“What we are seeing in the private sector for now is the ‘zero sum game’ mainly because historically we have had a situation whereby there is a very small market and everybody is fighting to have a 100 percent control of it. Local collaboration is what you see in South Korea whereby one company is supporting 100 other companies because they all know that to be able to attract the level of business that will develop the country, they all need to work together.”

She noted that LADOL has since keyed into this model hence it embarked on local fabrication as a way of creating jobs, and adding value to the economy. “LADOL is determined to do what has been successfully done in China and to prove to the world that we can economically support the largest project in the world such as this Egina FPSO project.