Nigeria’s seaports received a total of 1,992 ships with an aggregate gross registered tonnage of 60.2 million tons and handled 849,175 TEUs (twenty equivalent units) of container in the first six months of 2022.
NPA Managing Director, Mohammed Bello-Koko, who disclosed this in the authority’s half-year report, also said that 132,543 units of imported vehicles and 38,672,392 metric tonnes of bulk cargo passed through the port during the period under review.
“Also, the average turn-around-time of vessels, indicating port efficiency, stood at 5.16 days. This is an improvement, and we are strategising to perform better in the second half of the year,” he said.
The NPA chief executive also disclosed that the authority generated the sum of N172.29 billion between January and June 2022, while it remitted N78.49 billion into the Federal Government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) account.
“A breakdown of the figure indicates that N50,255,925,779.20 (fifty billion, two hundred and fifty-five million, nine hundred and twenty-five thousand, seven hundred and seventy-nine Naira, twenty kobo) represents cash remittances, the compulsory deduction of 25% of revenue generated and other sundry payments for the absolute period of January – June 2022.
“The remaining sum of N28,241,041,083.00 (twenty-eight billion, two hundred and forty-one million, forty-one thousand, eighty-three Naira) relates to the remittance with respect to other periods,” he said.
Bello-Koko noted that despite the global economic and inflation crises, among other factors, the half-year operational statistics were encouraging.
“Global economic and inflation crises, global reduction in household incomes and purchasing power and scarcity of foreign exchange all of which has negatively affected business environment, affected government revenue and constrained expenditure.
“The development in the port industry cannot be severed from the macroeconomic environment with galloping inflation that has grossly reduced the disposable income of households, the depreciating exchange rates that stifle business environment and the dwindling government revenue that constrains expenditure.
“In the face of these harsh macroeconomic indices, the Nigerian Ports Authority has forged on to deliver port and harbour services to the teeming operators in the export and import businesses across the country,” he said.
Bello-Koko assured that NPA remained committed to providing improved services to increase efficiency at the nation’s seaports.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.