Onitsha River Port Successfully Concessioned – FG 

The Federal Government has stated that it has been successful in concessioning the Onitsha port in Anambra, and is also moving on with its goal to concession other ports throughout the nation.

George Moghalu, managing director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), said this on Thursday, April 20, during a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential house.

Moghalu, who said that this will increase revenue, also said that negotiations for concessions of the still-under-construction Baro, Oguta, and Lokoja ports are ongoing.

He said;
“For Onitsha river port, we have successfully concessioned and handed over to Universal Elysium. It is a company that is partnering with the port of Antwerp for the next 30 years.

“Now, because of limited resources and to reduce pressure on the government, we opened up the discussion with other interested organisations, unsolicited proposals have come for the concessioning of Baro, for the concessioning of Oguta and Lokoja — though still under construction.

“So, we are discussing it with them. The advantage here is that it will reduce pressure from (sic) the government, these people own this port, complete the port, put the port to use and pay royalty to the government. So, it has a lot of advantages. We are working conscientiously on that.

“Before I came to office, Oguta River port was not on the budget for quite a while, but we eventually brought it back to the budget.

“As we speak, we have finished fencing the Oguta River port. And we are doing little by little, depending on resources available to put in place some basic infrastructure that are required for a port to operate.

“Same is applicable to Lokoja. So, we are taking it from two perspectives. Completing the building by government and concession or concession it so that the new concessionaire can complete the ports and put it to effective use.”

Moghalu who further revealed that big ships are expected to berth at Onitsha port soon, also stated that dredging is not the only priority for the agency as other activities must be fixed.

He added;

“All the resources, all the money available for NIWA this year, are not all dedicated to dredging or to opening up of channels.

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