Safmarine

Since the inception of seap|ts in US by the colonial masters in 1921, no systematic process for their re-development had been put in place until the current concession programme of port reforms started in 2000. This programme brought into existence the current set of private port operators in Nigeria. Moreover, this process of concession gained global credibility with the involvement of the World Bank, CPCS Transcom (of Canada) & Royal Haskoning (of Holland) as project monitors, concession bid managers and consultants, respectively. They worked with the National Council on Privatization (via the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE) to birth the new seaport re-development agenda. This advertorial is a brief expose of developments at the Ro-Ro Terminal at Tin Can Island Port Lagos since it was handed over to Five Star Logistics Ltd in May 2006 at the conclusion of the concession exercise. As the nation’s mass media duly informed Nigerians, about 86 local and foreign shipping companies and marine interests were pre-qualified from an even longer list of applicants to enter the initial bid for the concession programme. The 86 firms started by writing an expression of interest to the Bureau of Public Enterprises in 2004. The entire process culminated in the emergence of private port operators for all the concessions declared by the Nigerian Ports Authority through a widely circulated Memorandum of Information. This was the actualization of a Federal Government policy of urgently needed seaport reform agenda.