Seaports: NPA lacks political, legal power to sack agencies —LCCI

THE Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has stated that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) lacks the political and legal authority to sack any agency of government from the ports. This is even as the chamber urged sacked agencies to respect the Federal Government Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business in the ports.

It will be recalled that during a meeting with other agencies of government aimed at enforcing the Presidential executive order at the seaports, the Managing Director of the NPA, Ms Hadiza Bala-Usman named the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); Nigerian Customs Service (NCS); Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); Nigerian Police Force; Department of State Security (DSS); Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Port Health and NAFDAC as the approved agencies to operate at the nation’s seaports.

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However, in an exclusive chat with Nigerian Tribune, Director of Research and Advocacy of the LCCI, Dr Victor Nwani wondered where the NPA got powers from to enforce such regulation.

According to Nwani, “We at LCCI believe that NPA may not have the political and legal authority to evict other agencies from the ports.

“However, we subscribe wholeheartedly to the executive order released last year, which specified the numbers of agencies allowed to operate from the ports. In that executive order, NDLEA, SON, and other agencies of government were asked to stay away from the ports.

“The LCCI wishes to urge these agencies to kindly respect the executive order by keying into the Single Window, because the Single Window platform provides that when their presence is needed on a physical term inside the ports, they will be called in.

“The single window will allow technology to rule our operations in the ports in line with the executive order of the Federal Government.”