In their collective resolve to religiously implement the Executive orders on 24 hours port operations, government agencies operating at the nation’s maritime sector have agreed to establish a central portal to be known as the Port Community System where all the agencies and stakeholders will be domiciled and interact.
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman who disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the meeting of the Heads of government agencies and parastatals in the maritime sector held in Lagos yesterday said the portal was going to be an independent portal where every agencies and stakeholders alike could access it.
Usman noted that efforts were on to start procuring for the vendor that would deploy the infrastructure within the next one month adding that the platform would be jointly owned and jointly operated in a collaborative manner by all the agencies concerned.
According to her,” The Nigerian Ports Authority has an existing portal but we are establishing the Port Community System which should be the central portal where all the agencies and stakeholders that operate in the ports will be domiciled and interact. It is called a port Community System and we should start procuring.
“It will be independent and everybody will be able to access it. What we have done is that our collaboration goes beyond who will be housing it or where it will be domiciled; it is more to do with the stakeholders having access to it. It will be a virtual platform where you can access it from anywhere; it will be jointly owned and jointly operated in a form of collaboration. It is a communal tool that everybody will be able to access from wherever you are irrespective of where it is domiciled but it will be indeed jointly owned and jointly housed by the agencies of government”.
She stated that although the port access roads were not contained within the Executive Orders they were deploying, the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and NPA were partnering towards providing funding for the reconstruction of the roads. Even as she pointed out palliative works were ongoing on the roads.
“We believe that it is important for us to conclude on the main construction of the roads. The Federal Ministry of Works is providing us with the costing, we are going to jointly fund the reconstruction of these roads but ongoing palliative works has started and are ongoing now’, she said.
Usman while noting that palliative works was ongoing however said that there was no deadline as to when the palliative works would be completed adding that what was critical was full reconstruction of the access roads and that they were waiting for the federal Ministry of Work to confirm that it had obtained the necessary approval for NPA to provide it with the resources to enable them embark on the reconstruction.
The NPA helmswoman informed that they had directed that unauthorized personnel who had no business at the ports should not be allowed to gain access into the ports saying that the Nigerian Police Force and the Port Security have been given clear directive not to permit anybody in the port except people that have business doing in the ports even as she added that this applied to officials that were off duty.
She said,” Only on duty officers are permitted to be in the port location and those directives have been given for clear implementation. We have also noted the challenges with bribery and extortion within the port operations, we have made that clear that once any officer has been identified or caught soliciting such, he should be brought to our attention and necessary action will be taken. We have also challenged the stakeholders to work with us in achieving this by refusing to provide the bribe, by saying that there are clear Executive Orders and they would not provide any bribe or any form of extortion. With that, we believe that working hand in hand with the stakeholders we will be able to achieve that”.
“We have noted the challenge with the illumination of the port, these are all the areas that Nigerian Ports Authority is working towards to providing, full illumination of port areas, providing the adequate security required for port operations at night. These are the things that we will deploy and definitely we will conclude within the period stipulated within the Executive Orders.
“Our meeting here is to discuss full deployment of operation across the respective ports. It is not just limited to Western Ports; it is not limited to Lagos ports. And regarding the access road that you mentioned, the discussions we are having with the Federal Ministry of Works is around all access roads of ports not just Lagos ports, of course we have concerns for access roads into Onne ports, we have concerns for access roads into Calabar ports, and the Ministry of Works and NPA are working towards having one harmonized concepts on how we will implement and deploy resources towards reconstruction of all access roads to the ports. So, we are mindful of the fact that the ports in the Western ports are not the only ones that are functional; we are doing everything in the same manner for all the ports. Every discussion you see us having here, it includes our operations in the Eastern ports, we have our General Manager Eastern Ports here and he is part of our deliberations.
“You also raised concerned on issues about our biometric card, we have commenced procurement process on deploying biometric cards into the ports and we should be able to have that done within the 2017, as soon as our budget is passed, we will conclude on procurement requirements for access into the ports”, she explained.
On his part, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd.) averred that the service had to adopt the process of shift saying that was the only way they could cover the 24 hours the ports would be running.
On the issue of scanners, he said,” , Our partners before they left, we explained to them what steps we are taking with regards to the restoration of scanners back to the ports. Government is doing everything, we are not only fast tracking but we are doing the best we can and hopefully before some couple months from now, we have scanners in the ports. We realized that for the fast tracking of the clearance, you need scanners because if we have to subject every container to 100% examination, certainly that does not augur well for facilitating trade. So, we are working and government has agreed under the supervision of the Acting President himself, we are working towards getting scanners and properly deploying them”.
Also speaking, the Assistant Inspector General of Police in-charge of Maritime, AIG Pius Imue said that before the commencement of the 24 hours port operation ordered by the Acting President, the Force had been aware of the essence of the port security for both human beings and for the goods hence the Federal Government over the years had established the port Police.
Imue maintained that in addition to the establishment of the Port Police, the Police had also created the Maritime Police Command which was like a zone, covering all the ports and the inland waterways adding that the duty it had therefore was for the Port Police in the Eastern and the Western Ports to synergize within themselves in their own system to ensure that within their areas, everything and everybody was secured.
“But outside the ports which you mentioned which is very critical, I am in this meeting not just as AIG Maritime but as IG representative for this meeting and as we speak, I am to brief him at Abuja this night, meaning that the Commissioners of Police in-charge across the land of Nigeria, Area Commanders, Zonal AIGs have been fully informed of this operations in the ports now and they need to secure the movement of goods across the country leaving the ports to ease business which is the target of the government in this regard”, he stated.
Photo: The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman (right) and the Comptroller General Of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd.) at the stakeholders meeting on the implementation of the Executive Order of the Federal Government on Port Operations at NPA, Western Ports in Apapa, Lagos.
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