NPA blames poor port performance in 2013 on govt policies

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has attributed the performance result recorded in the port in 2013 on policy inconsistency on the part of the Federal Government, says a recent 2013 annual report released by the agency.

According to the report signed by Musa Iliya, assistant general manager, public affairs, Habib Abdullahi, managing director of NPA, blamed government’s fiscal policies that restricted some imports into the country and other issues as factors that limited the operations of the port in 2013.

The NPA boss further noted that market forces were part of factors that limited the activities of the NPA in the year under review.

“Generally, each port is being shaped by the market forces dictated by the commodity demand and particular port user. The decline experienced in some products can be linked to general economic factor. In dry bulk, the ban on the importation of cement and increase in rice tariff has reduced the importation of the commodity to the country through Nigerian ports,” Abdullahi said.

“The European debt crises gave birth to the decrease in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), many of their industries have closed down, and so the demand for our product was low. They have also discovered an alternative means of production in the Middle East. The petroleum product liberalisation, growth in gross domestic product (GDP) and the Transformation Agenda (of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration) resulted in increase in construction works and have had an unprecedented economic impact on the port industry,” he said. 

The report, however, stated that a cargo throughput, excluding crude oil terminals, of 76,886,997 million metric tonnes (mt) was handled at all Nigerian ports in 2013, reflecting a marginal increase of 0.042.6 percent over the 2012 figure of 76,855,754 mt.

A breakdown of the figure showed that container traffic amounted to 1,010,836 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), reflecting a growth of 15.2 percent over the 877,737 TEUs posted in 2012.

Also, a total of 291,824 units of vehicles were handled in the period under review, showing an increase of 8.9 percent over the 268,026 units recorded in 2012.

LNG shipment handled in the period amounted to 19,341,663 metric tonnes, a drop of 12.7 percent from the 22,146,908 metric tonnes posted in 2012, while the refined petroleum shipment handled amounted to 19,416,043 metric tonnes in 2013, showing an increase of 9.5 percent over the 17,730,727 metric tonnes recorded in the previous year.

Dry bulk cargo handled at the ports within the review period totalled 9,537,447 metric tonnes, showing a decline of 6.5 percent from the 10,205,339 metric tonnes posted the previous year, even as general cargo handled was 11,964,978 metric tonnes, indicating a 5.8 percent drop from the 12,702,826 metric tonnes recorded in 2012.

“In year 2013, the total of 5,185 oceangoing vessels with a total gross registered tonnage (GRT) of 131,674,337 gross tonnage called at Nigerian seaports,” the report said.

Similarly, in the period under review, the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) recorded 34,466,291 GRT, reflecting an increase of 9.4 percent over the 31,513,987 GRT posted in 2012, even as a total of 1,498 vessels were handled at same facility in 2013.

While 1,725 oceangoing vessels were handled at the Tin-Can Island Port Complex (TCIP) in 2013, the port also recorded 42,758,161 GRT, which is 23.2 percent increase over the 34,703,547 GRT of 2012.

Unlike the two western ports, the LPC and the TCIP, which both experienced increased GRT in 2013 over the 2012 figures, their eastern counterparts, Calabar Port Complex, Rivers Port Complex, and Onne Port Complex, suffered drops in GRT in 2013 when compared to 2012.

The Calabar Port Complex recorded 2,792,488 GRT, a decline of 2.8 percent compared with the 2,871,622 GRT of 2012, with same facility recording 197 ocean-going vessels in 2013, while the Rivers Port Complex recorded 6,394,270 GRT, which is a 7.9 percent drop when compared with the 6,929,179 GRT  recorded in 2012 with 447 oceangoing vessels registered.

Also, the Onne Port Complex recorded 38,967,131GRT in 2013, reflecting a decrease of 7.4 percent as against the 42,062,351 GRT witnessed in 2012 and 820 vessels in the period under review. The Delta Port Complex, also part of the NPA eastern ports, was, however, an exception from above-mentioned trio, having recorded 6,295,996 GRT in 2013, an increase of 105 percent over the 3,069,887 GRT the port posted in 2012. It handled 498 vessels in 2013.