By Uzor Odigbo
Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman has disclosed that the authority has dredged Escravos Channel leading to Delta Ports from 3.4 to 7 meters to accommodate bigger vessels.
Usman made this disclosure in Abuja while explaining NPA’s contributions to making Eastern Ports function better during a public hearing by an Ad-Hoc Committee of the House of Representatives.
Represented by the NPA Executive Director in charge of Engineering and Technical Services, Idris Abubakar, Hadiza said the Escravos Channel was last dredged 35 years ago before her administration embarked on it.
The MD said aside from reduction in terminal charges to encourage patronage of the ports, her administration has embarked on corporate social responsibility to alleviate the plights of host communities and encourage entrepreneurship.
She told the lawmakers that the distances from fairway buoys in eastern ports are much longer than that of Lagos ports and will require vessels in eastern ports to deploy more fuel and spend more time before berthing.
She added that the breakwater in Warri Port has given way for long while roads leading to the ports in different parts of the country require attention of the Federal Ministry of Works.
NPA, according to her, had written to the ministry of works since 2016 requesting that bridges in Taraba and roads leading from Calabar port from the North East part of the country be fixed to enable cargo movement from Calabar to the north.
“We have installed Local Maritime Distress Surveillance System (LMDSS) Coastal Station. We are also running radio signals for over ten years to assist mariners calling at the eastern ports” she said
Also making a submission before the committee, a representative of Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Abraham Adaji said the Warri Port has a distance disadvantage of 53 nautical miles and 86km from the fairway buoy to berthing point. This figure is said to be far higher than what obtains in Lagos.