The Minister of State for Transportation, Gbemisola Saraki, has restated the federal government plans through the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, for the total reconstruction of Quay walls of the TinCan Island Port Complex that have become weak due to age.
Speaking yesterday during her tour of the Lagos Port Complexes, the Minister said “we cannot build on a weak foundation, it is vital that we get these two very important ports modernized and ready to berth modern vessels. The state of the Ports shows decades of neglect but it’s better late than never.”
The Managing Director NPA, Mohammed Koko, had not long ago allayed fears of the imminent collapse of the TinCan Island Port Complex, informing that NPA was at the final stages of concluding funding options to fund the reconstruction.
The option includes talks with competent multilateral funding institutions and the possibility of NPA using a percentage of the revenue or transfers to consolidated revenue fund, CRF, to fund the reconstruction.
Koko had on several interactions with the media noted that “although the NPA had over the years been undertaking remedial works on the quays, the time has come for a wholistic reconstruction and the Authority is working with the Federal Ministry of Transportation on the most prudent funding option.
“We are on the verge of concluding discussions with multilateral funding agencies to fund the reconstruction. The other option is to go to the government to request that the NPA be allowed to use a certain percentage of its revenue which is transferred to the consolidated revenue fund (CRF) on yearly basis to fund the reconstruction. We transfer about N60 billion a year and we can use about 50 percent of that to repair Tin-Can. Another option is to do hybrid funding where NPA funds part and multilateral agencies fund the rest.”
