FG, firm sign $100m concession agreement for Warri Port terminal

The Federal Government and a core investor, Ocean & Cargo
Terminal Services Limited, on Tuesday, signed a concession
agreement for Terminal B of Warri Old Port.

This followed the National Council on Privatisation’s approval
of the technical and commercial bid of $100.78m submitted by Ocean
& Cargo Terminal Services Limited on June 18, 2018.

Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr Alex
Okoh, said that the objective of the Federal Government in port
concession was to increase efficiency in the country’s ports and
improve service delivery.

He added that the process was also intended to modernise port
development, reduce the cost of shipping and clearing goods at the
ports and relieve the government of the burden of financing the
sector.

The BPE boss signed the document on behalf of the government
while the Chairman of Ocean and Cargo Terminal Services, Dr Taiwo
Afolabi, signed on behalf of the company.

Okoh said, “The ports concession programme of the Federal
Government under the supervision of the BPE started in 2005 and
culminated in the concession of over 23 terminals to private
operators.

“In fact, the concession of the seaports in Nigeria represents
one of the success stories of the privatisation and
commercialisation programme in Nigeria.

“The concessionaire is expected to focus on these objectives as
they perform their business. The government expects nothing less
than strict adherence to the terms of the concession agreement from
the concessionaire.”

“Consequently, the pursuit of your business objectives must be
tailored in a way that will also assist in the realisation of these
objectives,” he told the concessionaire.

The Federal Government had upgraded the facilities of Terminal B
of the Old Warri Port. The upgrading included the construction of a
new quay wall and apron equipped with requisite facilities for the
berthing of vessels.

Okoh said upon completion of the rehabilitation and
reconstruction works, there was a need to concession the terminal
to a private operator who would be responsible for the operation of
the terminal and carrying out further development of its facilities
in line with the Ports Concession Programme.

Following the approval of the NCP, advertisements inviting
Expressions of Interest from prospective concessionaires for the
concession of the terminal were placed in national dailies on June
23, 2014.

At the closing of the submission, 13 Expressions of Interest
were harvested and subsequently evaluated.

After the evaluation, seven firms achieved the minimum
qualification mark and were prequalified for the issuance of
Requests of Proposals and Information Memorandum.

However, the issuance of Request for Proposals to respective
concessionaires was delayed for two years.