The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, while on a tour of Apapa and TinCan Island Ports on Monday stated that there is need for immediate rehabilitation of the critical infrastructures of the two major ports.
The Minister, who was conducted on the tour by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko stated this while speaking with newsmen shortly after the tour, he said there was urgent need to forestall total collapse of the ports’ infrastructure and therefore there must be immediate rehabilitation of the infrastructure.
The Minister however, called on terminal operators in the ports to collaborate with the Federal Government to rehabilitate the collapsed quays and other areas that require urgent rehabilitation in order to forestall a total collapse.
“To avoid the collapse of the port we need to rehabilitate the port as a matter of urgency and dredging must continue and we can put other things in place. I have gone round to see the things for myself. I have been having ministerial briefing since the last 10 days and I have seen a lot of things such as the challenges and the need to activate a lot of things about our ports.
While applauding the management of the NPA, the minister said they needed to be supported to acheive the desired reports. “we need to support them and I am looking forward to a situation where the terminal will be willing to contribute to the rehabilitation of the ports. It’s important and if they do that, they will make more money for themselves, it should be a collaboration with the terminal and the government.”
“We are carrying out remedial work on the quay walls very soon and I have asked them to let us have the report of what they carried out so far, we need to know the numbers so that we can get approval from the president for remedial work”.
“Absolutely we need to restructure and put the right infrastructure in place and it’s a way of revitatlising the economy we rely so much on oil and there are lots of other opportunities that has remained untapped for so many years and we must commend the president for creating the ministry”.
The Minister also stated that he would engage with the Federal Ministry of Works on rehabilitation of the port access roads. “On access road, it’s important to put it in place, we need to engage the minister of works to see what we can do together and I have discussed with the Ministry of Transport to see what we can do with the rail. I believe with all those things in place, we are good to go”. he stated.
The NPA MD Mohammed Bello-Koko who led other top management to welcome the visiting minister, pledged the entire management team’s commitment and support for the Minister to ensure that Federal Government’s desire to optimally harness the country’s rich blue economic potential for the benefit of all citizens is achieved.
Comments
Post a Comment