The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) says it was committed to restoring the viability and full potentials of its ports in Rivers State with a view to revitalizing economic activities across the South-South.

 

Manager of the Port Harcourt Port Complex, Abubakar Umar said this on Thursday, May 16, 2019 when the Executive Council of the Maritime and Energy Reporters Corps of Nigeria (EMR) paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Port Harcourt.

 

Umar revealed that since he assumed office in 2016, the management under his watch has been working to actualize the mandate of restoring the ports in Rivers State to full viability, which includes restoring the confidence of stakeholders in the security of the ports and other facilities across the state.

 

The Port Manager, who was accompanied by the Principal Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications, Ezinne Asinobi, and the Harbour Master, Capt. Femi Oyewole, explained that the management under his leadership embarked on sensitization drive to importers in the region on the need to route their goods through the Port Harcourt port, which allayed their fears and got their buy-ins.

 

“We created awareness on the viability of the Rivers port and we allayed their fears about insecurity and other matters. Now, the Port Harcourt port is busy and viable. Most of our berths are now occupied. Containers now come because two shipping lines now come to Port Harcourt and one more is about to join”.

 

He further revealed that the management had to work assiduously to decongest Harbour Road, which was rehabilitated by the Rivers State Government in 2016.

 

“Road congestion, which was a fact of the Harbour Road, is no more so. This is because we took proactive measures to keep that in check. We now insist that our road be free. We say, do not use port road for parking,” adding that insecurity, which was a concern in the past, had also been addressed, noting that “from 2017, Rivers ports operate on Step 1 security grade, not step 2 anymore”.

 

Umar said the NPA in Port Harcourt was positively disposed to partner with the EMR to achieve greater public awareness of its activities.

 

“We will work with the media to achieve better information dissemination. We can only request you to always clarify information before use. Update of information is important and you have already observed that we are steadily reaching out to the media. We believe that regular update is key”.

 

Earlier in his address, the Chairman of EMR, Martins Giadom, of Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation (RSBC), noted the sterling achievements of the NPA in Port Harcourt under the Abubakar Umar led management, and called for greater synergy between the NPA and EMR.

 

“This visit affords us the opportunity to explore areas of mutual benefits in the pursuit of a better port system in Rivers State and other facilities of the NPA in the state which would help transform the ports to become economically viable, business-friendly and responsive to global best practices.”

 

Giadom said EMR was keen about reporting the Energy and Maritime sectors of the economy, thus was committed to playing critical roles in the dissemination of relevant information about the NPA’s activities across the South-South and South-East.

 

“The Energy and Maritime Reporters (EMR) Corps is an organization founded by senior journalists in the Energy and Maritime sectors of the profession with the key objective of pursuing strategic media goals that would help bring to better limelight the issues of the sectors.

 

EMR thus remains focused on working in synergy with relevant stakeholders in the Energy and Maritime sectors to better inform the public, better engage operators in the sectors and better enhance economic activities in both the Energy and Maritime sub-sectors.”