- Experts Advise FG on Port Facility Development
The Federal Government has been advised to adopt the public-private partnership model to address the decay in infrastructure at the nation’s seaports.
Making the call in Lagos during the second edition of the Taiwo Afolabi Annual Maritime Conference, a partnership between Sifax Group and Maritime Forum of the University of Lagos, major stakeholders in the industry, including legal practitioners and leading scholars, said that the PPP model remained the most attractive option for the government to develop and maintain critical port infrastructure across the country.
While delivering his keynote address, the Executive Director, Sifax Haulage & Logistics Limited, Major Henry Ajetunmobi (Retd.), said that the move would open up the sector to greater things and improve the economy of the country significantly.
He said, “As the government’s concession of the ports to private terminal operators enters the second decade of its existence, one expects stronger consolidation of the gains of concession that are already witnessed beyond dispute by various classes of port users and operators as well as government agencies.
“Consolidation can come only through greater investment in port infrastructure anchored on stronger public-private enterprise involvement.
“The current bad state of port access roads, especially to the two ports in Lagos, Apapa and Tin Can Island – the ports that receive over 70 per cent of the total cargo throughput in Nigeria, is a rather sad commentary on the way we have fared as a nation even on the one transport mode we appear to have chosen.
In his remarks, Afolabi, who is the Group Executive Vice-Chairman, Sifax Group, pointed out that the PPP model would improve efficiency in service delivery.
Apart from urging the government to improve infrastructure at the ports, experts at the event also called for the review and strengthening of existing laws to regulate the sector and boost the confidence of prospective investors.
The event was also attended by undergraduates from different universities looking to pursue a career in the maritime sector in the future.
