NPA MD, Bello-Koko, says Tin Can Island Port may collapse if…

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has said that the Tin-Can Island and the Lagos Port Complex, Apapa, are on the verge of collapse if they are not rehabilitated as soon as possible.

The Managing Director of the NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, disclosed this in Television interview, which was monitored by Daily Sun during the weekend.

He said that he Port of Tin-Can was collapsing, and if nothing was done in the coming years, there would be many problems related to doing business there.

According to him, also, Escravos, Calabar, and Onne Ports were in need of significant rehabilitation alongside Tin-Can to the tune of $800 million.

He said for the port of Tin-Can, It was not an imminent collapse, but in the next few years, if nothing was done, there would be problems.

“We have been managing Tin-Can and doing palliatives and other jobs for sometime now, but it is time we rehabilitate it completely. We also need to rehabilitate some parts of Apapa,” he added.

Bello-Koko added that the Tin-Can rehabilitation needed to also be done alongside ports in the Niger Delta region from Escravos to Calabar, adding that total costs could rise to $800million.

“We need to reconstruct the ‘breakwaters’ in Escarvos. It has collapsed for over ten years, and there is a collapsed jetty in Calabar, Warri, Rivers, and Onne. There is no port that does not need reconstruction of some of its facilities. Our estimates are between $560 and $800 million

“The gap is because if we decide to leave Apapa till much later, we do not need up to $800 million, but if you need to reconstruct Tin-Can, we need that amount,” he said.

He added that the NPA has increased it’s revenue from N250 billion and N300 billion to N361 billion, revealing that contribution into the Federal Government CRF has increased to N91 billion.

“We believe this year, we should do far better than what we currently did by surpassing the amount raked in and remitted into Federal Government CRF,” he added..