New Telegraph

Port Concessionaires In Dilemma Over Fuel, Operational Costs

The deteriorating economic condition, high exchange rate, operational and administrative costs, epileptic power supply and price of fuel have started affecting port terminal operators as they are finding it difficult to meet workers’ demand and increase in wages as contained in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

It was learnt that there was no provision for independent power supply in all the seaports by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) as average retail price of diesel increased by 55.90 per cent yearly from N539.32 per litre in March, 2022 to N836.81 per litre in March, 2023.

Findings revealed that various terminal operators in the port were finding it difficult to meet salary bill because of the escalating cost of imported spare parts and fuel to power their terminal and cargo handling equipment as government is silent on their requests to increase their charges by 50 percent.

Also, it was gathered that these had put the port terminals under severe financial pressure as government is also silent on their request to increase port charges. The concessionaires had attempted to increase their handling charges by 50 per cent but were stopped by the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) and Nigerian Ports Authority in 2021.

Although NPA agreed that the cost of doing business at the ports was high, it, however, said that there had not been increment in port tariff from government in the last 30 years. Worried by the development, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) said that the terminal operators had over the years borne the burden of wages, salaries and allowances, which, unfortunately, they could no longer shoulder due to general inflation rate and high cost of doing business.

The maritime workers union contended that unless the terminal operators were allowed to increase their port charges, it would be difficult to pay their wages recently negotiated and signed with Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA). It noted that there had been tension by dockworkers in all the terminals, ports, jetties and all oil and gas platforms because of the stagnated poor wages.

The union said: “We call on the management of NSC to give kind consideration to the proposal of terminal operators for a review of the vehicle/car tariffs and other freights charges as obtained in ENL, Josepdam, Port and Cargo, and other terminals to enable them meet their obligations to dockworkers in order to forestall an imminent break down of industrial peace in our nation’s seaports as they are the economic regulators in this sector.”

However, the Managing Director of NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, explained that the authority had not increased its tariff in the last 30 years. Bello-Koko added that it was towage services that the authority reviewed sometime around 2012 or 2014. He said: “NPA has not increased it’s tariff since 1993. The rates that we have been using since 1993 is still the same rate that we are using today.

“The last time the NPA increased it’s tariff was in 1993. Yes, the cost of doing business at the ports may be high, but we have not increased our tariff in the last 30 years. “It was in 2012 or 2014 that the NPA Increased the cost of towage. Every other tariff has remained as it is since 1993.

“The cost of doing business could be increasing, but it’s not attributable to the tariff and rates of the NPA. What we did in 2012 was to harmonise the tariffs and merge them because they were so many. Before then, if anybody is looking for our tariffs, they will find many tariffs broken into pieces. So what we did then was to merge them.”

On the situation of the port, the managing director agreed that the situation at Tin-Can Port was the worst, even though every other port needs some level of rehabilitation too, stressing that NPA had been doing palliative works, trying to manage the situation. However, he said that the palliative work had gotten to a stage where it was no longer tenable.

He added: “Tin-Can Port is the one that is in a worst state, very terrible. We believe it is time to reconstruct and rehabilitate Tin-Can Port. “There are some Quays at other ports too that need rehabilitation. Some Quays in Apapa, Warri, Calabar, Onne and virtually all the ports need rehabilitation. “Our assessment showed that we need about $800 million dollars to rehabilitate all the ports.”

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