Rivers’ Ports: FG assures of completion in two years

…As NIWA moves against water hyacinth

The Federal Government has assured Nigerians that the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) will complete the Baro, Lokoja and Oguta River ports before the end of the current administration.
This is just as the Agency has inaugurated Aquatic Weed Harvester (FX-IIB) and the Vegetative Cutter (AVC)-Swamp Devils I, II, and III it acquired recently, to combat the menace of water hyacinth on Nigerian waterways.

This assurance was given recently by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, at the 2017 NIWA International Conference and Exhibition, tagged: “Improving Navigability and Inland Port Development for Sustainable Investment on Nigerian Waterways”, held in Lagos recently.
Amaechi, who explained that budgetary appropriation have been made to ensure the completion of the Baro, Lokoja and Oguta River ports, urged private sector to maximally utilise the network of rivers, creeks, lagoons and lakes in the country.

He, however, tasked NIWA to procure bigger dredgers in order for the agency to perform better in its operational activities.

He said, “Similarly, adequate budgetary appropriation have been made to ensure the completion of the Baro, Lokoja and Oguta River ports within the lifespan of this administration.”

“I am pleased to confirm that we have recorded tremendous progress on the concession of Onitsha River Port; and we are very hopeful that the process of concession of the port will be completed before the end on the year.”

He said, “I am happy to announce that NIWA, especially under its new leadership, has been able to look inward and through their in-house engineers, have commenced the maintenance dredging of the Ajaokuta to Onitsha channels of River Niger; and this will save the country huge sums of money. Thus, I implore NIWA to procure bigger dredgers that have bigger capacity to perform better than they are doing presently.

“Another area that should earn our commendations on the activities of NIWA is the progress recorded over the amendment of the NIWA Bill at the National Assembly. The bill has gone through third reading at the Senate; and it is hoped that the House of Representatives will also support and endorse the new bill, which in essence will enhance the capacity of NIWA to enforce her rules and regulations, resolve the present crisis with her sister parastatals and other government agencies, and boost the revenue profile of the Authority in order to make it self-sustaining.”

Speaking earlier at the conference, the Managing Director of NIWA, Boss Mustapha stated that the agency would develop inland ports for cargo handling and passenger operations in order to create connectivity for multimodal transport linkages (Road-Rail-Waterways-Sea) transport.

He sai, “One of the focus of this conference is to encourage government and stakeholders to strengthen the desired machinery towards deriving the benefits of investments in Coastal and Inland Shipping Operations on the Nigerian waterways.”

According to him, “To achieve this developmental goal, NIWA has commissioned an in-house project team to embark on a continuous dredging of the entire waterways in Nigeria, which was flagged off by the Minister of Transportation with an overwhelming support of His Excellency, Governor of Kogi State,

Alhaji Yahaya Bello on the 28th of April, 2017, at the Ajaokuta Jetty. This is aimed at sweeping silts and deepening the waterways for smooth navigation.

“The Onitsha port that is fully equipped and was commissioned in January 2013 has now received Ministerial approval for the advert for Expression of Interest (EoI) to be published.”