The recent visit of Africa’s richest investor, Aliko Dangote to the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho at the Authority’s Headquarters in Lagos is expected to forge a working relationship that will impact positively on the nation’s economy
By Edu Abade
Under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria’s fledging economy is getting set to witness an extraordinary boom in the near future, according to economy experts. This expectation is not unconnected with an alliance formed recently by two formidable private and public sector corporations. The newly established alliance is geared towards bringing to tangible fruition the much touted economic agenda of the present government, encapsulated in what is commonly referred to as the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of President Tinubu.
The new economic alliance consummated only last April, between the Dangote Group of Companies and a Federal Government agency operating in the shipping business sector, based on the assessment of economy analysts will put smiles on the lips of millions of Nigerians when the country begins to reap its dividends.
Hence, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) have set sights on the development of the nation’s Marine and Blue Economy sector, with plans to ensure expansion of Nigeria’s export operations through a more robust and sustainable collaboration.
With an uncommon desire to contribute significantly to the President Tibunu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, deepen the growth and development of the maritime industry, expand export operations, the collaboration targets a $7 million daily revenue, an equivalent of N11.2 billion, which amounts to N336 billion monthly. This revenue target can snowball beyond N4.032 trillion yearly revenue for the country through fertilizer export.
Following its potential for revenue generation even beyond the projected figures, stakeholders have commended the initiative, saying that the collaboration could not have come at a better time than when the Federal Government is looking for higher revenues from its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), especially the money generating ones.
Speaking during a courtesy visit to the NPA headquarters in Lagos last May, the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, explained that as the biggest customer of the NPA, it was important that the interaction between the Authority and Dangote Group only got better and sustained.
His words, “We are here to thank the NPA for doing a great job, because as we speak today, we are the biggest or largest customer to NPA. I think this kind of interaction between us and them is very, very important for the growth of the industry. So, we discussed quite a lot of issues. We also discussed issues of how to deepen the Marine and Blue Economy of the nation. And we have agreed to actually work together for the benefit of Nigeria.
“The size of our own operation at Lekki alone is going to be almost 240 ships of crude, with each ship carrying one million barrels of crude each. And then we will have products which now will amount to over 600 ships in a year. Then we also have our fertilizer operation, which will be loading almost eight ships. This is an operation that has never, ever been seen in the country.
“So, it’s a major challenge. But with the leadership of the NPA, we are very, very comfortable that they’ll be able to deliver. Our operations will sink if NPA doesn’t give us the services we will require for our operations. So, for us to succeed together, the NPA will need a lot of support from the Federal Government because they won’t be able to do these things with their own physical hands. They need equipment. They need more Tug Boats.
“We will also be putting in some few words in the necessary quarters to ensure that NPA gets all the necessary assistance from the Federal Government.”
In the area of export, Aliko Dangote explained that efforts were on to expand export products outside Nigeria, adding that, “We will soon be massively expanding our export operations. For some of you that have been to our Cement factory in Itori, we are already exporting cement out of Nigeria. We have a whole factory of six million tons for cement export.
“In the next couple of weeks, we will start exporting coal out of Nigeria. Our fertilizer export will be almost like eight cargos. The refinery operations will not export less than 25 million tons of various products. We will also be exporting almost 600,000 to 700,000 metric tons of polypropylene. So, when you are talking about export, we are going to be acting very big.
“In the next two years, we will be exporting almost about 16,000 tons of fertilizer. When you talk about 16,000 tons of fertilizer, it’s actually about $6.5 million to $7 million revenue that will be coming into the country on a daily basis.
“With our export programme, our company will be the major supplier of foreign exchange earnings in Nigeria. So, the operations of Nigerian ports will definitely double in the next one or two years.”
Responding, NPA Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, explained that Dangote visited the Authority to show appreciation for the dividends of the Federal Government’s Naira for Crude sale policy on which the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company thrives.
Dantsoho said, “Aliko Dangote is here to show appreciation, especially regarding the establishment of the One-Stop-Shop policy on Naira for Crude deal, which is being coordinated by the Nigerian Ports Authority. He is here to appreciate that the initiative has contributed immensely to achieving a lot of efficiency in the area of the transactions and operations among Nigerian government agencies.
“This is something that started last year on October 1, 2024, and so far, we have treated or operated over 57 vessels every month. The projected volume that Dangote was looking at per annum was 600 vessels. If you do 56, 57 vessels in 12 months, you will see that we are already doing bigger than what they projected. We will continue to do our best with support from the government.
“If all government agencies can collaborate and be on the same dashboard, then efficiencies in other sectors of the economy will also be witnessed. And we are delighted that the government has approved the National Single Window. We are also happy that as of today, we are 95 percent ready for the Port Community System (PCS).”
Commenting on the development of new ports across the country, Dantsoho said, “There are two ways you can handle capacity improvement and expansion or deepen port capacity. You can do it on a brown field, which is, you renovate or rehabilitate existing ports; or on a green field, which is, build new ports.
“The last time the government built a new port in Nigeria was in 1977, which was the Tincan Island Port. There is already an approval for the port modernization of both Tincan and Apapa Ports. We are hopefully looking at maybe the third quarter of this year to commence the construction. That is on the brown field.
“On the green field part, as I said earlier, we have deep seaport development projects that have already been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC). We have Ibom Port, we have Bakasi, we have Olokola, we have Ondo Port and we have Badagry in Lagos. These are new ports that the government is concerned about and very soon we will begin to see that these ports will become reality,” the NPA MD stated.
Dangote, who stressed that collaboration with the NPA could generate $7 million daily as fertilizer-export-revenue with the NPA and government’s support, stressed that the visit reinforces existing partnership between both organizations, especially in readiness for the rising volume of products emanating from the Dangote Refinery.
Addressing the media after a closed-door session with the management of the NPA, Dangote said that inter-agency collaboration as well as government support was necessary to seize the opportunities and economic benefits the refinery presents for Nigeria.
He pledged support for the development of a new port and projected that within the next two years, Nigeria’s revenue from export through the refinery would increase to at least $7 million per day on fertilizer alone.
