NPA To Review Partnership With Swiss Firm On Shipyard
 10th August 2007

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is set to review its partnership with the Dockyard Engineering Services (DES) of Switzerland on the Joint Venture (JV) arrangement on Continental Shipyard, the Managing Director for the Western Ports, Malam Abdulsalam Mohammmed, has said.

Mohammed, who made this known in Lagos on Monday while receiving the Minister of State for Water Transportation, Mr. John Emeka, explained that NPA currently operates a JV with the Swiss firm on 60:40 equity ratio. He explained that the purpose of establishing the dockyard was to manage, operate, upgrade and modernise the dockyard as a support unit of the Ports Authority.

In addition, he said that the shipyard was also meant to construct, repair and maintain vessels and crafts.
He said that the review of the partnership was based on the recent corporate governance audit management, which, he said, had forced the management to begin to explore other possibilities in the JV arrangement, such as leasing the shipyard or involving private sector in the management of the facility.
Mohammed also told the minister that NPA, and a consortium of foreign companies, led by Messrs. Depasa International, in May 2005 established the Lagos Channel Management Limited to ensure adequate and timely maintenance of the Lagos channels in view of the anticipated increase in ship and cargo traffic.
He said that the firm would carry out other responsibilities, such as channel marking with buoys, wreck survey and removal, as well as pollution monitoring.

The Managing Director told the minister about the existence of another subsidiary of NPA - Landfall Transport and Towage Limited, which he said, was established to achieve optimal efficiency in towage operations.

He explained that the firm was also meant to attract private capital investment, upgrade the number and quality of tug boats, as well as improve the skills of pilots and crew.

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