World Bank Delays Onitsha Port Take Off, says NIWA

• 

  Counters Sarumi’s submission

• The intrigues, politics behind

 

The World Bank has been said to be responsible for the delay in concession of the Onitsha River Port, the Acting Managing Director of the National Inland Water- Ways Authority (NIWA) Barr. Danladi Ibrahim has said, even as he debunked the impression that the Port is not viable.

At a recent Federal Government function, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Chief Adebayo Sarumi had said that they had always known that Onitsha River ports would not be viable.

Sarumi had said that in reaction to the Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi’s earlier remark that the port was not attracting patronage, in spite of the huge fund spent for its dredging activities.

The reaction of the ex-NPA boss elicited thick anger and bitterness from the audience. Many left with bottled negative impression, insinuating political intrigues, especially against the background of discordant reasons usually advanced by successive governments for keeping the port idle for over 30 years now.

A former National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA), Chief Ernest Elochukwu retorted by asking how many stakeholders’ awareness forum has been organized by the Federal Government to sensitize shippers and freight forwarders on the readiness of the port for use. This was not however answered.

Speaking with MMS plus, in Abuja recently, Barr. Danladi said, “What Sarumi was saying is not correct. I have told the minister that he is wrong”. According to Danladi, Julius Berger currently transports its heavy equipment via badges to Onitsha River Port, arguing that if the port is not viable as being made to believe, companies such as China Harbor Engineering will not be angling to win its concession.

Danladi however noted that the World Bank and the Federal Government would need to conclude their project plan for the port, as that is currently the tissue of delay in its take off.

Read  Barr. Danladi’s chat with MMS Plus in an encounter for more revelations.

Chief Adebayo Sarumi said that the Onitsha River Port is not viable and that they knew it would not be ,but however declined to explain why. As the Acting MD of NIWA, is that true?

 

What was Chief Sarumi saying? Was he saying that the port will not work?

Well, the truth is that I told my Minister that what Sarumi said was not correct. You know Julius Berger is the Company building the second Niger Bridge, all the equipment for the construction of that bridge was transported by water, from Lagos to Onitsha port and there were no hitches. The badge they used was about 200 metric tons. You can see that it is huge. Apart from that, Sterling Oil has their oil base at Opai in Delta state. They transport their crude oil by badge through the same port on a daily basis. When, two years ago, we visited the port with the House of Representatives members, they saw things for themselves. They counted about four badges transporting cargo through the port. Back in Lokoja, there is a company called Niro, they transport ceramics, which is tiles, from Ajaokuta to Onitsha on a daily basis. Currently, we are discussing with China Harbor Engineering on concession of the port to them. They want us to concession the three ports- Baro, Onitsha and Lokoja to them. They take cargo from Lagos to these ports. The only problem there is that of channels because the infrastructure aren’t there but that is being fixed and luckily, we will have two ports ready by the end of this year. Lokoja port is about 58 per cent completed. By the time you have these three ports completed, because you cannot transport when you don’t have where to load and off load. So by the end of this year, we will have two ports completed.

OK, is it that the traders in Onitsha and the neighboring towns and states were carried along in the marketing drive that resulted to the low patronage, so far?

What do you mean by that they were not carried along?

They were not satisfied by the availability of the facility?

We have had several awareness programs in Onitsha. At least, three times, and the shippers, the traders there are ready to use the port. The only thing delaying the take off of Onitsha port is the concession process by the World Bank.

Is it the World Bank that concessions  or the Bureau for Public Enterprise( BPE) and Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC)?

It is the World Bank that appoints the concession Consultants and we have been waiting for them for about three to four years now. So, all we need to do now is to write to the Minister of Transportation to write to the President to write them so that they can fast track the concession exercise.

You are talking about concession and you already have a company in mind. How do you ensure competitive bidding?

No, we don’t have any company. What we want to do is competitive bidding so as to get the best.

Recall that it is more than two years and eight months now that President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned the Onitsha River Port complex with N 4.6 billion sunk into it.

It was however first commissioned in 1983 by President Shehu Shagari, but was rehabilitated by Jonathan’s government as one of the prime measures to boost economic activities in the South Eastern part of the country.

According to Jonathan in August 2012, “The river or marine transport must be enhanced and to do it, we need Inland Port like the one in Onitsha. Our target is to link all the ports by road and rail so that doing business in Nigeria becomes easier. The river ports must be linked up to other areas of resources. Today, the process is being started and others on the drawing board must be completed.