The House of Representatives, on Wednesday, unveiled plans to investigate proposed review and renewal of agreements for the concession of the nation’s seaports.
The resolution was passed sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Chairman, House Committee on Air Force, Hon Shehu Koko, who expressed concern over the delay in the exercise.
In his lead debate, Hon Koko explained that the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria anchored the concession of Seaport Terminals between 2005 and 2006 for an initial period of 10 years, 15 years and 25 years across the NPA Port Complexes of Apapa, Tincan Island, Port Harcourt, Onne, Calabar, Koko and Warri, respectively.
He observed that: “Some of the concessioned terminals with initial tenure of 10 and 15 years have expired while some will expire in May 2021 and needed renewal to avoid losses of hundreds of millions of dollars revenues accruable to the government and direct foreign investment by investors for further upgrade and rehabilitation of the Ports to achieve the modernization objectives of the government.
“The review and renewal process had commenced in 2016 with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Federal Ministry of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Transport, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and Private Terminal Operators.
“The Concession Agreements that have expired are deemed to have been automatically renewed without the benefit of full renegotiation, provided that concessionaires served the lessor requisite notice of intent to renew in line with the provisions of the Agreement.”
To this end, the House mandated the joint Committees on Ports & Harbor and Privatization & Commercialization to interface with relevant government agencies and other parties to the concession agreement to investigate the cause of the delay and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.
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The 624 new cases reported between March 28 and April 3 is a reduction from the 849 recorded the previous week…Reps probe review, renewal of seaports’ concession agreements