Insecurity and piracy blamed for low patronage and commercial activity at Niger Delta ports

GOVERNMENT officials have blamed insecurity brought about by the activities of sea pirates in the Niger Delta for the poor patronage of the regions port facilities resulting in the area being unable to exploit its maritime potential to the full.

Nigeria's Niger Delta has several ports in Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River State but international cargo companies have shunned them in favour of Lagos. This has led to the Lagos economy booming, while the Niger Delta remains largely undeveloped, failing to attract the much needed investment.

Chidi Izuwa, the acting director-general of Nigeria's Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, faulted the claim in some quarters that high charges at the seaports in region were responsible for the low patronage. Speaking in Port Harcourt during a visit to seaports in Rivers State to assess the compliance level of port concessionaires with the agreements reached over the management of the facilities, he expressed the determination of the federal government to put measures in place towards improving the level of patronage of the seaports by enhancing the smooth running of operations at the facilities.

Mr Izuwa said: “As an agency of the federal government, which takes custody of all concessionary agreements between the government the private sector and ensure efficient execution, we are here on a monitoring visit to see if those agreements are met. The challenges they have are similar, the issue of dredging of the channels and low throughput in terms of economic activities.

“More needs to be done on the development plan that was released by the government. Security is also very important as if vessels are coming here and they and people are attacked, they will not want to come again.”

He pointed out that security is a challenge that is affecting the ports in this region and not the issue of high charges. According to Mr Ozuwa, security is a very expensive thing and it is important that government tells people that without security, businesses cannot prosper.