Adegboyega Oyetola, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, has expressed the urgency of restoring the vital infrastructure at the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports.
He made this remark yesterday in Lagos, after inspecting the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Managing Director, Mohammed Bello-Koko.
He urged the terminal operators to work with the federal government to fix the damaged quays and other areas that need rehabilitation, to prevent further deterioration of the ports infrastructure.
According to him, “To avoid the collapse of the port we need to rehabilitate the port as a matter of urgency and dredging must continue and we can put other things in place. I have gone round to see the things for myself. I have been having ministerial briefing since the last 10 days and I have seen a lot of things such as the challenges and the need to activate a lot of things about our ports. Infrastructure is almost collapsing with what I have seen so far and it’s a major rehabilitation that have to be carried out and the dredging has to continue.”
He however, commended the management of the NPA, stressing that they needed to be supported to achieve the desired reports.
He added, “I am impressed with the management of the authority we need to support them and I am looking forward to a situation where the terminal managers will be willing to contribute to the rehabilitation of the ports. It’s important and if they do that, they will make more money for themselves, it should be in collaboration with the terminal and the government.
“We are carrying out remedial work on the quay wall very soon and I have asked them to let us have the report of what they carried out so far, we need to know the numbers so that we can get approval from the president for remedial work.
“Absolutely we need to restructure and put the right infrastructure in place and it’s a way of revitatlising the economy we rely so much on oil and there are lot of other opportunities that has remained untapped for so many years and we must commend the president for creating the ministry.”
In addition, he said that he would collaborate with the ministry of Works on restoring the roads leading to the port.
“On access road, it’s important to put it in place, we need to engage the minister of works to see what we can do together and I have discussed with the ministry of Transportation to see what we can do with the rail. I believe with all those things in place, we are good to go,” he stated.
In his remarks, Bello-Koko expressed his gratitude to the minister for his visit to the port and his interest in the situation on the ground. He assured the minister of his full cooperation and commitment to work with him to achieve the objectives set by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He said he was honored to serve under the minister’s leadership and guidance.
