THE NATION, SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012
INTERVIEW
51
‘We only concessioned expertise, not maritime security to private firm’
•Idris Umar
ment have plans to amend this Act? That was a good observation. Presently, we are working on a bill, in collaboration with the Bureau of Publci Enterprises, seeking to repeal the Railway Act of 1955. The Act has given exclusive rights of ownership of railway to the Nigerian Railway Corporation. We believe we should amend the Act to enable states and private sector invest in railway development. We have already finished working on the bill but it is with the Attorney General of the Federation for vetting. I am sure that in the next couple of weeks, the Federal Executive Council will consider the bill before it is forwarded to the National Assembly. What is the situation with inlands ports and the river ports your ministry is constructing at Onitsha? A number of inland container depots are being constructed under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. At the moment, six of them are under construction. They are Isiala Ngwa in Abia state, Burukutu in Borno, Plateau, Zaria in Kaduna, Ibadan in Oyo, Kano in Kano. These are a number of inland container depots that are being constructed under the PPP arrangement. The investors have suggested that we should approve that these depots be allowed to operate as the port of first destination and port of origin. The meaning of that is that they should be allowed to operate just like ports that people can get in their goods from this lnland container depot direct to where they want them to go, out of this country by way of export and then receive them by way of import. We are, of course, looking into that. We have given approval to this in principle. We are just trying to conclude the documentation. Also, in the area of marine transport, the country has about 300 kilometres of port land which has much natural harbour and sandy beaches. Port operations and development have been the responsibility o f
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NIMASA only went into partnership with GWVSL and the function they are performing is to provide the platform and expertise to maintain the safety of the waters. ...People have been making a lot of insinuations that security of our waterways has been concessioned to militants. It is very irritating. It is absolutely wrong
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double track alone is going to cost $1.5billion. So if government has to put in money to construct the rail line under the modernisation programme, you can imagine what it will cost to modernise railway lines from Lagos to Abuja, Abuja to Maiduguri or from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri or from Lagos to Enugu. So it is of necessity that the private sector be partnered and that is why we have been going round the world looking for investors, discussing with them and trying to woo them to come and invest in critical infrastructures, particularly the railway. Of course, people will argue that most countries in the world where the railway system has been successful are the ones the governments bear the cost of laying the tracks. Of course that is the plan. But then, when you have a very serious challenge of funds, constraint of funds, then you have to look inward and invite the private sector and see those who will be prepared to put in their money. What is important for us as a nation is to ensure that this major infrastructure is reintroduced and redeveloped. We also have the Central corridor under the modernisation programme. Under this, you have the Itakpe-AjaokutaWarri rail line which is equally being completed. We hope that by the first quarter of next year this line will equally be completed. With the present Act setting up the Nigeria Railway Corporation, it is clear that private investors will find it difficult to build and operate rail transport. Does the govern-
the Nigerian Port Authority. The Nigerian Port Authority operates six major ports excluding oil terminals with the constructive holding capacity of 100m metric tons peranum. In 2006, the Federal Government carried out comprehensive reforms that made them to become a landlord and regulator and delineated the port in the terminal and concessioned them to private operators for the terminals to operate. For the avoidance of doubt, the six existing ports are the Lagos port complex which is the popular Apapa Tin-can Island port complex, Rivers port complex in Port Harcourt, Bonny port complex, Calabar port, Delta port complex which comprises Warri, Koko Sapele, and Burutu ports. For some time Koko, Sapele and Burutu have not been operating but efforts have been put in place to attract investors for the reactivation of the Koko port. Government has adopted a policy of partnership with the private sector to develop all these ports in this direction, a number of prospective investors have been lined up. Already government has reached advanced stage, almost all the negotiations have been concluded, the Akwa Ibom deep sea port is also in line. The governor of Akwa Ibom State has graciously granted the certificate of occupancy for the land. Also in Ibadan, we desire to establish the Olubade district port, that is the deep sea port. So these are the prospective places for the investors to come and invest to partner with us. The partnership is on 60:20:20 basis. The investors will have 60 per cent of equity, the state will have 20 per cent while the NPA will have 20 percent. The idea is to encourage the private sector as much as possible because port development is capital intensive and government alone cannot bear it, therefore you need to give the private sector a lot of dividends. We will not compromise on the intention of government because, in the process of the operation of the port, a lot of revenue comes in to the government and a lot of effect where the port is being established in terms of revenue generation, in terms of job opportunities and many others. What is the position of the inland water ways? At the moment, the government has completed the dredging of the lower River Niger from
Warri in Delta State up to Barro in Niger State covering a distance of over 532 kilometres. The idea is to
concentrate on the priority areas. What is on now is the maintenance stage. We have already commenced discussions with a lot of private investors who are ready to come and patronise us. As a matter of fact, we have two or three meetings with companies that are interested in maintaining and managing the channel. We have the Lagos channel management, Warri channel management and so on. We have received three applications from very serious companies that have shown interest in coming to partner with us, so that we allow them to manage and, of course, maintain the channel through which they would be on their own by attracting investors through the channel. It is also important to mention the fact that a number of River ports have been developed. The Oguta River Port is being constructed. Baro River Port is being developed and very soon we are going to have contract for the development of Lokoja River Port. The Onitsha River port will be commissioned. We are hoping that, by the second quarter of this year, we will invite Mr. President to go and commission the Onitsha River port. We are very proud of the contractors. They are indigenous contractors. Sometime last year, I had promised that, in about two months’ time, we should be able to bring the president to come and commission the port. But I identified certain places that I felt work must be done at the port as it were. I discovered that the stacking area was not sufficient enough for a port of this magnitude and I asked the technical experts at the site whether it was not possible for a particular portion at the stacking area to be developed so as to increase the size of the stacking area. Secondly, when we went there, there was no light and probably there was no generator and a number of things. So, after these observations, I asked them to go and do the costing and then they came out with the cost and then they said that it was not possible for them to complete this work within the time frame. So, we gave them more time. Some
t h r e e weeks back I took a memo to council for the augmentation to approve the variation for these things to be put in place. In fact, more than 95 percent is completed from the report I have. But, before the commissioning, I will have to go there to really make sure that everything is taken care of. I wouldn’t want a situation where after a project had been com-
missioned, we still go there to commence amendment instead of commencing full activities as expected. We want to commission a place that immediately after the commissioning, activities will begin. Also this year, we intend to award contract for the dredging of River Benue from Lokoja to Makurdi. The Federal Executive Council has approved the fund for the feasibility study for the dredging of River Benue. Of course, we need to conduct general survey and environmental impact assessment. It is equally going to involve a facility survey to determine what needs to be done. The controversy over the award of a contract for the security of the water ways to a private company owned by a former militant is still being discussed in business circles. What is the situation? NIMASA only went into partnership with GWVSL and the function they are performing is to provide the platform and expertise to maintain the safety of the waters. This company will not bear arms. That is the responsibility of the Nigerian Navy. So, people should not make the mistake that the government has ceded out the security of our waters to private sectors. NIMASA is established by the law of the parliament, the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Act. Under that law, NIMASA is empowered to take charge of the administration and the safety of our waters and to carry out its functions and responsibilities either by itself or through an agency of government or in partnership with any institution of government or in partnership with any agency of government or in partnership with any natural or juristic person. These are the operative words: Natural person will mean you and I as a person while juristic person will mean a limited liability company like the GWVSL, which has now entered into partnership with NIMASA. It can only provide expertise. It will provide platform to provide security for the port and equipment. They are on surveillance. So, people should not make the mistake that government has ceded out the security of our waters to private sector. No, government has concessioned out the security of our waters to private sector. The private sector is to provide platform, equipment, expertise, because of the enormity of the capital required. Like I said earlier, government cannot finance everything. We need to partner with the private sector. We have to make it clear that we operate no cure no pay basis. Companies will only be entitled to their fees when they are able to reach in collection of fees to NIMASA, the fee the NIMASA is collecting over a period of time. People have been making a lot of insinuations that security of our waterways has been concessioned to militants. It is very irritating. It is absolutely wrong. This is the true position.