The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mallam Habib Abdullahi has blamed the poor operations experienced by the Agency in 2013 on the Federal Government policies.
According to the 2013 ports’ performance report signed on his behalf by the Assistant General Manager (AGM), Public Affairs, Mallam Musa Iliya, Habib mentioned that the government’s fiscal measures that restricted some imports into the country are one of its major challenges.
Habib further stressed that the market forces were part of factors that limited the activities of the NPA in the year under review.
The report further showed that, a cargo throughput, excluding crude oil terminals of 76,886,997 million metric tons (mt) was handled at all Nigerian ports in 2013, reflecting a marginal increase of 0.042.6 per cent over the 2012 figure of 76,855,754 mt.
A breakdown of the figure showed that container traffic amounted to 1,010,836 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), reflecting a growth of 15.2 per cent over the 877,737 TEUs posted in 2012.
Also, a total of 291,824 units of vehicles were handled in the period under review, showing an increase of 8.9 per cent over the 268,026 units recorded in 2012.
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) shipment handled in the period amounted to 19,341,663 metric tons, a drop of 12.7 per cent from the 22,146,908 mt posted in 2012.
On the hand, refined petroleum shipment handled was in 2013 was 19,416,043 mt, showing an increase of 9.5 per cent over the 17,730,727 mt recorded in the previous year.