WASHINGTON: The Federal Government plans to instal anti-corruption mechanisms at Nigerian ports to tackle fraudulent and criminal activities. The Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, said at the weekend that the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption would soon open an office in the NPA in line with a report submitted by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) on the corruption index in ports administration. Usman, who is also a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, affirmed that the Authority would embark on strong anti-corruption measures in 2017.
The NPA boss, who visited major customs agents and freight forwarders at the weekend, assured that the authority would interact more with stakeholders in 2017, to keep abreast with happenings at the various ports. To this end, she said the NPA would introduce quarterly stakeholders’ meetings to know what is on ground at the ports, and be better informed on the plight of operators. Usman also acknowledged the need to block revenue leakages. The National President of ANLCA, Olayiwola Shittu charged the NPA MD to address some of the problems at the ports, which include: corruption, bad roads and high port charges at the port leading to un-competitiveness of Nigerian ports, compared to neighbouring West African ports. “We want to appeal to you to use your God-given approach to battle corruption at the ports,” he said.
