NPA spends $200m on depth maintenance at Lagos ports

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has revealed that they have spent more than $200 million on dredging the channels that leads to the Lagos Port Complex (LPC), the Tin-Can Island Port, Roro Port and container terminal in the last 10 years, it was learnt.

The body spent the amount on the dredging the channels at an annual scope of 2.6million cubic meters per year.

The senior official of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue economy, while speaking to the media anonymously disclosed that the initial cost of dredging per cubic meter was $3.71 million before it was increased based on the need for the maintenance of navigational aids, purchase of spare parts, depth surveys and wreck removal to meet the full requirements of SOLAS and ensure international standards are maintained.

The senior official said, “a depth survey of the channels were conducted in accordance with the accepted regulations of the International Hydrographic Office (IHO)"

He added that the reports and the charts, “are computerised in a format that confirms to the SOLAS requirements.”

The Managing Director of NPA, Muhammed Bello-Koko, the government official said, “has established a state-of-the-art computerised billing system that has enthroned proper collection of ship dues, providing an efficient monitoring and collecting procedure of the NPA’s revenue which has resulted in the increase of the revenues earned by the Federal Government in the last few years.”

To make the financial viability of the NPA better, its management, investigation revealed, has decided to maximise the use of the official depth references, in accordance with the reference chart maps, by continuing to increase the size of the ships (maximising the acceptable draft limits) in order to increase the volume of goods into the ports and increase government revenue to boost the nation’s economy.