Comrade Akinola Bodunde ,President of Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government Owned Companies (SASCGOC), Maritime Branch has disclosed that not all port concessionaires deserve a renewal of their concession agreement.
During an interview with JournalNG, he revealed that some port terminals have not achieved what is expected of them as regards infrastructural upgrade, employment and port development.
Bodunde emphasised that port concession has not actualised all the promises made during the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) Pre-concession era.He advised that the government should withhold the renewal from terminals that have not made tangible impact in their port area.
The Maritime Branch SASCGOC President said the Union experienced difficulty in operations as a result of the policy of 50% revenue reduction from parastatals in the maritime industry in 2024. He said the government reconsidered its position of 50-50 to about 30-70 and the Union awaits the implementation.
Speaking further, Comrade Bodunde requested that more dedicated workers are employed at NPA to enable development and consistent revenue generation.He also solicited for salary increment on behalf of workers of the Union.
He commended the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy,Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola and the Managing Director of NPA , Abubakar Dantsoho for their commitment and resilience towards port development in Nigeria.
“We were all deceived during the NPA Pre-concession because at that time, they told us that it will bring more employment and we were reduced by about 7,000 workforce. Looking at all the terminals together and calculating their staff strength, I don’t think they are up to 2,000. Has it increased employment? And they are still reducing. Can we now say the terminal operation has increased employment? No. If you look at infrastructure, all of them have in their concessional agreement ,what and what to do in the port development. How many of them have even added one value or two to their current terminal? Only a few.
“Automatically, we have not achieved what they were expecting or all of us are expecting, concerning the level we are supposed to get to.
“Some of their terminals are due for renewal. I think government should look into it this time around. Anybody that has not performed, should not have his terminal renewed because some of them have failed woefully.
“Towards the end of last year, they reconsidered their position of 50-50 to about 30-70 now. We are waiting for the implementation.Throughout last year, because of that policy, we really suffered. We couldn’t meet our target because we use money to generate money. We are not like some other government agencies that collect revenue without any serious capital project to spend it on. We are in operation and you need to put your facility in order before you can generate revenue.
“It’s not only NPA that generates money from the port. Other organizations generate money because of the commitment of NPA on the port development. It’s not a good policy.Thank God the government is addressing it. We hope the implementation starts as soon as possible.
“We need development. We need people who will put all the terminals on their toes ,because we are losing revenue.There are areas we need to cover, that we are not covering because of the number of people we have. NPA is just a little above 3,000 workforce and we have more than 1,000 jetties in Nigeria. Even in Lagos area, at Mile 2 axis to Badagry, we have more than 60 jetties unmanned because we don’t have workforce. If we even post 3 each to all these terminals or jetties, they will record issues going on. Government is looking for revenue but we have areas that we have not covered that we need to cover. We have discussed with the new NPA Managing Director, Abubakar Dantsoho and I think they are working on it.
“We need to work on our salary to make the people happy and more committed to the job. Things are hard outside no matter what they are collecting.By the time they pay their children’s fees, buy foodstuff and even maintain themselves ,they don’t have much left.” ,he said.
