The Senate Committee on Commercialisation and Privatisation said concessioned ports have started yielding higher revenue for the country.
This is contained in a statement by Head, Public Communications, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr Chigbo Anichebe in Abuja on Sunday.
The statement said the Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Olugbenga Obadara, said this during an oversight visit to Tin-Can Island Port, Lagos.
In it, Obadara said the purpose of the concession had been achieved as services at the ports had significantly improved and were also contributing immensely to the revenue base of the Federal Government.
“The concession fees paid by the concessionaires contribute to the nation’s annual budget as against the pre-concession period when the Federal Government allocated huge sums of money to maintain the ports.
“The Federal Government through BPE concessioned the ports to ensure development and efficiency which in turn would yield high revenue for government as it is applicable in other countries with ports’’, he said.
Managing Director of Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), Mallam Habib Abdullahi, said the authority was collaborating with the ports’ concessionaires to ensure that the ports were fully developed.
He said that a well developed port would bring about efficiency as well as guarantee high tonnage in import and export services which would lead to increased revenue for the federal government.
Abdullahi added that the NPA was in the process of drawing up a 25-year development plan for the ports.
General Manger of Josephdam Port Services Limited, Mr Dimon Travers, said the recent five-year lease extension on Tin-Can Island Port Terminal would ensure additional development of the terminal.
He expressed optimism that at the expiration of the concession period, the terminal would had been fully developed and operated as a world-class terminal.
“Cargo throughput is expected to increase significantly in the next few years. In the first quarter of 2014, there was a 29 per cent increase as against the 12.6 per cent in 2013,’’ he said.
Travers said his company had remitted all throughput and lease fees to the NPA up to the first quarter of 2014.
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