The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has generated revenue of N172.285 billion from its operations in the first half of 2022.
The Authority, in the same period, remitted N78.496 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federation.
These disclosures were contained in a half-year 2022 operational report released by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko.
Giving a breakdown of the figures, Bello-Koko said N50.255 billion represents cash remittances, with the compulsory deduction of 25 per cent of revenue generated and other sundry payments for the absolute period of January-June 2022.
He stated that the remaining sum of N28.241 billion relates to the remittance with respect to other periods.
The NPA boss said in the face of global economic and inflation crises, among other negative factors, the half-year operational statistics were encouraging, adding that they had bolstered impressive remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federal Government.
According to him, “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.
“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 the 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,” he said.
The NPA boss explained that the remittances were expressions of the operational performance of the ports.
According to him, in the first half of 2022, a total of 1,992 ship calls were recorded and the aggregate of the Gross Registered tonnage (GRT) of vessels was 60,235,133 tons.
“The Authority achieved total cargo throughout 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.
“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 that it was important to note that 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 on higher revenue generation and economic growth of the nation.
Bello-Koko promised stakeholders and Nigerians that the Authority would exceed expectations in terms of revenue generation and keep fidelity to its remittances into the CRF for the year.