The House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation and Commercialization, has summoned the Ministers of Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola and that of Transport, Saidu Alkali over alleged fraudulent concession of Nigeria’s strategic seaports infrastructure.
The committee at its sitting on Tuesday, also invited the Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello Koko, Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprisesector (BPE), and Director General Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Micheal Ohiani among others.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Ibrahim Hamisu, at the meeting with the seaport terminal operators lamented the absence of heads of key stakeholders, including the Ministers of Transport and Blue Economy, the Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority to explain what they know about the concession of Seaports and terminals.
The Committee expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which the concession process was handled, leaving the five companies involved to be operating for five (5) years, without renewal of contract at a huge loss of revenue to Nigeria.
“We invited you to this meeting today to discuss how best to address this prolonged renewal process because of the need to attract investments into our critical port infrastructure, which is one of the major focuses of this administration.
“From the brief we received from affected parties and MDAs involved in the process, we understand that as of today what is outstanding in concluding the process that started over 5 years ago is the execution of the negotiated Supplementary Agreements for the respective Terminals.
“That is why we invited all stakeholders to see how we can work together to quickly address this concern in the mutual and national interest”, the Chairman said.
Addressing journalists afterwards, he explained that there was a need to find out why the companies listed were still operating without renewal of the concession.
