The House of Representatives is probing the delay in the conclusion of the review and renewal of the agreements for concession of seaports.
To this end, the House mandated its committees on Ports and Harbour as well as Privatisation and Commercialisation to interface with parties to the concession agreement. The committees are to report within four weeks.
This followed a motion on the “Need to investigate the delay in conclusion of the review and renewal of agreements for concession of seaports” by Shehu Koko.
The House noted that the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) anchored the concession of seaport terminals between 2005 and 2006 for an initial 10, 15 and 25 years across the NPA Port Complexes of Apapa, Tincan Island, Port Harcourt, Onne, Calabar, Koko and Warri.
The House said it was aware that some of the concessioned terminals with initial tenure of 10 and 15 years have expired while others would expire next month and needed renewal to avoid losses of hundreds of millions of dollars revenues accruable to the government.
“The House is also aware that the review and renewal process had commenced in 2016 with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Federal Ministry of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Transport, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and Private Terminal Operators.
“Concerned that the concession agreements that have expired are deemed to have been automatically renewed without the benefit of full renegotiation, provided that concessionaires served the lessor requisite notice of intent to renew in line with the provisions of the agreements,” the lawmakers said.