The Board of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has approved a new organisational structure and the commencement of a business process re-engineering initiative that will create synergies to improve efficiency.
The Board, led by Emmanuel Olajide Adesoye, also scrapped the current two-zone system and approved the redistribution of all General Managers in the organization.
A press release issued by NPA on Friday stated that, “The far reaching initiatives which are aimed at making the NPA a truly professional and performance driven organisation, were approved at a board meeting which held at Eko Hotel and Suites on July 27, 2017.”
NPA said the review became important because the organisation’s structure has remained the same in spite of the 2006 concession, which change its status from owner/operator to landlord.
“This change in status brought about the concession of cargo handling operations to the private sector; outsourcing of dredging, towage services and vessel maintenance, use of contractors to build infrastructure,” the NPA statement signed by its spokesman, Ibrahim Nasir stated.
Changes approved by the NPA Board include the reduction in the number of General Managers from 25 to 22; the upgrade of the Hydrography and Dredging Department into a Division status to be headed by a General Manager in recognition of its strategic importance to the Authority; the upgrade of the Information and Communications Technology Department into a Division to take more responsibilities from Departments like Utilities; the creation of a new Monitoring and Regulations Division; the merger of the Capital Projects and Maintenance Divisions into a single Engineering Division to eliminate redundancies; the scrapping of the Special Duties Division; scrapping of the zonal office structure such that departments in the ports will now report directly to the head office.
The Board also approved changes in the nomenclature of nine departments and divisions including Public Affairs, which will now be known as Corporate Communications; Overseas Office (London Office), now renamed International Liaison Office; Capital Projects and Maintenance Divisions now to be known as Engineering Division; Hydrography & Dredging Department now Hydrography Services Division; Monitoring and Compliance Division now Monitoring and Regulation Division; Commercial and Port Promotion Services Department now Tariff & Billing Department; Secretary/Legal Services now Legal Services; Insurance & Risk Management Department now Enterprise Risk Management Department and the Business Development and Joint Venture Department renamed Public Private Partnership Division.
Under the new structure, Goje Abudulahi Aliyiu (General Manager Eastern Ports) who now takes charge of newly created Corporate and Strategic Communication Division; Capt Ebubeogu lheanacho who until now was General Manager Monitoring and Compliance Western Zone, will now serve as General Manager in the Managing Director’s office; while General Manager Special Duties Mrs Ugo Madubuike now assumes duty as General Manager, Monitoring and Regulatory Services.
Also, Abdulahi Buhari who was General Manager SERVICOM takes charge of Administration from Mohammed Nasir Anas, who moves from Security. NPA’s Abuja Liaison office is to be overseen by Kabir Edward Dauda; while Engr. Peter Obinomen, General Manger Capital Projects is now to assume functions as GM, Public Private Partnership (PPP). Engr. Mohammed Ahmed Rufai is now General Manager, Engineering; Mrs Ufere Carolyn, General Manager SERVICOM and Arc Gbadamosi Rafiu Abiodun, General Manager Superannuation. Engr. Jatto Adeiza now takes charge of land and Asset Administration while Onueyenwa Simeon Obumneme, is now General Manager ICT.
All hand over formalities are expected to be completed by 8th September 2017.
NPA said it was convinced that the new structure will enhance its capacity to meet its new mandate and strategic direction; improve allocation and optimization of resources; eliminate duplication of resource and work duplication; and reduce cost to income ratio “to the advantage of all stakeholders and Nigerians as a whole”.
NPA also said that the new structure will forestall duplication of responsibilities across division, remove bottleneck currently created by the zonal office structure, eliminate redundancies created by the transfer of certain core functions to third party contractors and minimise multiple reporting relationships and attendant red tape.
“The business process re-engineering process is the next phase of the re-organisation and it will detail work procedures that will enable the authority take full advantage of the technology that has already been deployed and terminate the low capacity utilization engendered by manual processes.
“The NPA is mindful of the welfare of its employees and has assured them that no job will be affected by this process. Staff of departments that have been scrapped or merged will be deployed to newly created departments fitting their competences.
“The authority assures that the ultimate goal of this initiative is to institute a transparent and efficient system which will deliver the best dividend to Nigeria and its citizens. We solicit the support of all Nigerians to the achievement of these goals,” NPA said.