The federal government says it requires about $1.1 billion in reinvestment in the nation’s ports to renew the concession agreement.

The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, said this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation investigating ports concession in Abuja.

He said the concession of the ports was being delayed to allow the government to conclude its reinvestment plan and reconstruct the ports to meet the required standard.

He said the government would not sit back and watch the ports completely collapse.

The minister said the present agreement between the government and concessionaires was unacceptable. He said the ministry envisioned a major reinvestment in the port system under the port’s modernisation programme to meet the expected service delivery requirements.

According to him, this will be commensurate with Nigeria’s image and the level of international business that Nigeria has.

Also speaking, Mohammed Koko, managing director of Nigeria Ports Authority, said the proposal for renewing the concession agreement for the ports was submitted to the Federal Executive Council in February 2023.

He explained that the FEC put the renewal on hold, demanding additional information. He added that one of the issues raised by the FEC was investment, as it relates to existing infrastructure at the ports.

Ignatius Ayewoh, acting director-general of the Bureau for Public Enterprise, said that the government reinvestment plan should stop the concession exercise’s renewal process.

He said, “I want to say that BPE was involved completely in this concessions arrangement and to date, monitoring has been taking place. And some of the status reports as per performance will be provided for record purposes.”

Ibrahim Chidari, chairman of the House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, said the ministry must implement measures to ensure that the government does not lose revenue.

He said after the agreement’s expiration in 2021, the terminal operators were given a six-month extension twice.

He said, “We don’t want them to continue to operate illegally because there must be no vacuum.”

(NAN)