The Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA), on Monday, disclosed that, the commencement of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) will be a launch pad for the actualisation of strategic intent of the authority becoming the maritime logistics hub for sustainable ports services in Africa.
Giving a keynote address at the the just concluded 9th edition of the Union of African Shippers’ Council (UASC), the managing director, NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, disclosed that the event’s theme was a clarion call on everyone to intensify the synergies necessary to take maximum advantage of the new vistas of opportunities inherent in AfCFTA Agreement.
According to him, NPA has been working assiduously under the technical guidance of the International Maritime Organisation(IMO) to deploy the Port Community System (PCS) for trade facilitation.
He said: “the theme of this year’s commemoration, ‘African Continental Free Trade Agreement: A Veritable Platform for African Shippers to Mainstream into Global Trade’, is a clarion call on us all to intensify the synergies necessary to take maximum advantage of the new vistas of opportunities inherent in AfCFTA Agreement.
“For us at the Nigerian Ports Authority the commencement of AfCFTA symbolizes a lot of positives, because it provides a launch pad for the actualisation of our strategic intent of becoming the maritime logistics hub for sustainable ports services in Africa.”
He said, wthe strategic leverage that AfCFTA offers in mind and deriving from its realisation that automation remains the most veritable tool for assuring Port efficiency, that it has been working assiduously under the technical guidance of the International Maritime Organization to deploy the Port Community System (PCS), ‘which will enable us respond squarely to the dictates of global trade facilitation.’
“Indeed, we are convinced that the PCS will provide the backbone for the National Single Window which is necessary to deepen our efficiencies across board as a maritime nation.
“I am the more delighted by the fact this year’s Shippers’ Day is coinciding with the operationalization of the Lekki Deep Seaport which apart from being Nigeria’s first Deep Seaport, is also the first fully automated port at take-off,” he pointed out.
Bello-Koko, however, stated that, the authority is putting measures in place to ensure that all the seaports including deep seaports in the country be automated.
He also disclosed that the authority is more poised to hold hands with the shippers’ community to work out solutions and action points arising from the Shippers’ meeting.
To him, “we have put measures in place to ensure that this operational template of full automation at take-off will govern the operationalization of not just the forthcoming Badagry, Ibom and Bonny Deep Seaports, but also of the reconstruction of the aged Tin-Can Port, where work is set to commence once we secure the necessary approvals from the Federal Ministry of Transportation and FEC respectively.”
