The Chairman of the House Committee on Ports and Harbour, Rt. Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, has expressed concern over the rating of Nigeria’s sea ports as the lowest in terms of capacity in the West African region.
This reaction follows a briefing by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, during a meeting with members of the committee at the National Assembly Complex on Monday.
Dr. Dantsoho lamented the dilapidated state of Nigeria’s ports, which according to him “prevents modern ships from berthing at the nations sea ports across the country”.
He noted that despite Nigeria being the destination for a significant volume of shipments coming West Africa the country’s ports are unable to handle larger vessels due to aging infrastructure.
stressing that in contrast, countries like Côte d’Ivoire, with a much smaller population, boast more advanced ports.
The NPA Chief Executive highlighted that “the ports in Lagos can only accommodate small ships with a capacity of around 4,000 containers because of the aging infrastructures”.
He disclosed that “larger ships carrying up to 25,000 containers cannot berth in Nigerian ports due to inadequate infrastructure. However, Dr. Dantsoho assured the committee that plans are underway to rehabilitate the harbors, which were built between 70 and 100 years ago.”
When the chairman sought about the commencement of the upgrading of the Eastern ports, the Managing Director stated that the procurement process would begin soon.
The Hon. Nnaji, assured Dr. Dantsoho of the parliament’s support in upgrading the nation’s sea ports within available resources to mitigate capital flight resulting from low capacity.
