President of the Port of Antwerp, Mac Van Peel, has expressed satisfaction with the level of development of Nigerian ports eight years into the port concession era.
Peel, during a meeting with the executive management team of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in Lagos on Tuesday, particularly singled out the progress made at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC), Apapa since the port concession exercise of 2006, for commendation.
The management of NPA and the Port of Antwerp, met to fashion out modalities to strengthen their age long collaboration, especially in the areas of manpower training and enhancement of the global transport chain.
Managing Director of NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi, while addressing the press at the end of the meeting recalled the role played by the Port of Antwerp at the beginning of the nation’s port reform leading to the landlord model of port concession.
He said NPA stands to gain more knowledge from the Antwerp Port to consolidate the gains of port concession.
NPA, according to him, will explore its existing relationship with Port of Antwerp to its own advantage, especially in the areas of manpower training.
He said several officers of NPA have benefitted from training programmes the Port of Antwerp Training School.
He expressed confidence that the new collaboration between the two organisations would be of immense mutual benefits to both parties.
The port delegation is part of a 50 man Belgian trade mission to Nigeria under the auspices of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium.
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