The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) says it generated N172.28 billion in revenue in the first half of 2022.
The agency made this known in its 2022 half-year operational reports released by Mohammed Bello-Koko, its managing director and chief executive officer (CEO).
The figure represents a 5.38 percent increase from its revenue generated in the first half of the preceding year.
NPA generated N163.5 billion between January and June 2021.
In the latest report, the authority said it remitted N78.49 billion to the consolidated revenue fund (CRF) of the federation in the period under review.
“A breakdown of the figure indicates that N50,255,925,779.20 represents cash remittances, the compulsory deduction of 25 percent of the revenue generated and other sundry payments for the absolute period of January-June 2022,” the statement reads.
“The remaining sum of N28,241,041,083.00 relates to the remittance with respect to other periods.”
Bello-Koko said in the face of global economic and inflation crises, among other negative factors, the half-year operational figures were encouraging.
He added that the agency bolstered impressive remittances to the CRF of the federal government.
“Global economic and inflation crises, global reduction in household incomes and purchasing power and scarcity of foreign exchange all of which has negatively affected business environment, affected government revenue and constrained expenditure,” he said.
“The development in the port industry cannot be severed from the macro-economic environment with galloping inflation that has grossly reduced the disposable income of the households, the depreciating exchange rates that stifle business environment and the dwindling government revenue that constrains expenditure.
“In the face of these harsh macro-economic indices, the Nigerian Ports Authority has forged on to deliver port and harbour services to the teeming operators in the export and import businesses across the country.”
The NPA boss said the remittances were expressions of the operational performance of the ports.
He added that in the 1st half of 2022, a total of 1,992 ship calls were recorded and the aggregate of the gross registered tonnage (GRT) of vessels reached 60,235,133 tons.
“The Authority achieved total cargo throughput of 38,672,392 metric tonnes and 849,175 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of container traffic. Vehicle traffic handled, during the period under review, was 132,543 units,” Bello-Koko said.
“Also, the average turn-around-time (TAT) of vessels, indicating port efficiency, stood at 5.16days. This is an improvement and we are strategising to perform better in the second half of the year.”
Bello-Koko said the “port remains the gateway of the national economy, and thus represents the barometer by which we measure the pulse of the economy”.
He said the authority remains committed to providing improved services to increase efficiency at the ports that impact higher revenue generation and economic growth of the nation.
The NPA boss said such services include the deployment of marine crafts at all port locations; laying of buoys at Calabar and Escravos Channel to improve safe navigation; deployment of security patrol boats to increase safety along the port quays; among others.
Freelanews is the editorial byline of Freelanews.com, used for staff reports, news updates, press releases, and collaborative stories produced by the Freelanews Editorial Team.
