The Eko Support Services Limited, operator of the Bullnose facility at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) in Apapa has said that it invested over 200million Dollars rebuilding the facility. This is even as the port operator welcomed the eviction of some government agencies from the ports, stating that this will increase efficiency at the ports terminals.
Speaking to selected newsmen in Lagos over the weekend, the General Manager of Eko Support Limited, Mr. Seni Edu explained that some of Eko Supports investments on the Bullnose facility are amortised while others are not.
According to him, “You know we rebuilt the Bullnose facility. If you are familiar with the Bullnose before, you will know how it used to look like. We pre-founded the facility and are getting paid by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) over time.”
“On the rebuilding of the Bullnose facility, we have spent about 150million Dollars. This investment is amortised over a period of over 20 years concession.”
“On investments that are not amortised like equipment, Eko Support Services has spent more than 30 million Dollars. All together, we should be looking at 200million Dollars in investment at the Bullnose facility by Eko Support.”
On the proposed 24 hours port operation, Mr. Edu explained that it might not be possible if the roads are not fixed. In his words, “the 24 hours port operation policy is not achievable if government does not fix the roads. This is so because the bad state of the roads makes everything slower.
“Even for us at Eko Support, when we are loading trucks for our import cargo operations, the bad state of the roads make everything slower. The bad state of the roads definitely doesn’t make the Ease-Of-Doing business attractive.”
On the Executive Order of the Federal Government which has led to the eviction of some agencies from the ports, Mr. Edu stated that such policy all end up bringing sanity to the ports.
“Government agencies operates at the ports sometimes as if they are competing. The evicted agencies should not see the order asking them to leave the ports as the issue, I think the issue they should focus more on is efficiency at the ports.”
“For some agencies, we don’t need them permanently in the ports. As long as they have access to the ports any time they are needed, then leaving the ports shouldn’t be seen as a problem.” Edu stated.
On the De-Categorisation of some port terminals, Edu explained that this policy will improve competitiveness among port operators.
“There are two things clients look at, price, and efficiency/quality of service. We at Eko Support are getting commendable testimonies from our clients. They tell us our terminal is a clean environment and that we are efficient. Although, some clients always perceive our charges as being more expensive because we also do offshore supply vessels.”
“However, once they saw that our charges for commercial cargo is more competitive, we have been taking more and more clients.”
“In fact, the reason we could not take more and more clients before was because of the fact that we are not allowed to do certain cargoes. But with the de-categorisation policy, it enhances competitiveness among operators.”
“The issue of one person handling another person’s cargoes is down to the lull in port operations. If things pick up, I believe there is enough cargoes for everybody.” Edu added.
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