The Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) said Tuesday that the persistent theft of buoys is discouraging international cargo ships from using the country’s eastern maritime corridor.
Managing Director of NPA, Mr Mohammed Bello Koko, said this while briefing State House Conference.
He said each of the buoy, which serve as navigational route signs, cost between N12 million and N20 million.
He said no fewer than 25 of the maritime safety equipment have been stolen from Nigerian waters this year alone.
He said beyond the cost of the buoys, it is costlier to install and deploy them to the country’s territorial waters.
He said lack of buoys put ships at risk of running aground.
He said the NPA had been interacting with the locals and their leaders where the thefts occur as part of efforts to stop the trend.
He said some of the buoys “have solar panels and sensors; and there is a beacon light there that flashes at night.”
“So the first thing they do is to vandalize that sensor. And then you just have iron that has no light, and they can just drag it off without the sensors.
“We can monitor it if it is not disconnected. Atimes we send in our boats to go round scouting for it. And to also be fair to the communities.
“We have had some instances where the buoys were naturally taken away by nature, they went adrift, they ended up on the shore of some communities.
“And to be fair to them, they have actually called us a couple of times to tell us that there’s a buoy that has gone adrift and it is in our community. And we thank them for that.
“We believe probably the communities do not even know the individuals that are involved in these activities. So we are monitoring the buoys. And that’s how we got to know how many are stolen any day it’s stolen.
“Because the captains are also taking vessels in and out of the water channels, they will naturally know when they can’t find the beacons on the buoys, meaning that something is missing, and they normally report it,” he said.
He also assured that the NPA is making efforts to ensure that the eastern maritime corridor is attractive to investors.
He said the Calabar and Onne ports are now ISO-certified and have seen tremendous increase in traffic concerning imports and exports.
He said the with Onne port is becoming the fastest-growing port in Nigeria.
“In terms of percentage input, Onne has done 11,800 metric tons half of this year. We are seeing that the increase in percentage is high, probably because it’s easier to do business in Onne now.
“And because we have deployed more equipment in Onne, more personnel, we have paid attention to ensure that we made the port more competitive. In terms of export also, there’s an export processing terminal within Onne itself,” he said.
