Federal lawmakers at the House of Representatives on Wednesday agreed to investigate the delay in the privatisation and concession of seaports across the country.
The House therefore mandated the Committees on Ports and Harbour; and Privatisation and Commercialisation to ‘relate with parties to the concession agreement in order to identify reasons for the delay in conclusion of the review and renewal of the agreements for the port concession.
This followed a motion raised by a member of the House, Shehu Koko, titled ‘Need to Investigate the Delay in Conclusion of the Review and Renewal of Agreements for Concession of Seaports’.
Koko recalled that the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) had on behalf of the Federal Government anchored the concession of seaport terminals between 2005 and 2006 for an initial period of 10 years, 15 years and 25 years across the Apapa, Tincan Island, Port Harcourt, Onne, Calabar, Koko and Warri ports, respectively.
The lawmaker noted that some of the concessioned terminals, with initial tenure of either 10 years or 15 years, had already expired while some would expire in May 2021.
He said there was a need to renew the agreement to avoid ‘losses of hundreds of millions of dollars’ in revenues accruable to the government.
He added that it would also affect Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by investors for further upgrade and rehabilitation of the ports to achieve the modernisation objectives of government.
Koko further recalled that the review and renewal process commenced in 2016 with the NPA, Federal Ministry of Justice, Federal Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Bureau of Public Enterprises and the Private Terminal Operators.
He said, “The House is 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.”
