Nigerian seaports to witness blackout over debts, STA implementation

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There is an imminent blackout in all the seaport terminals in Lagos over inability of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to pay its monthly electricity bill to Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EDC). It was learnt that NPA was unable to pay its electricity bill in all the ports due to the recent Single Treasure Account (STA) introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The Treasury Single Account is a public accounting system under which all government revenue, receipts and income are collected into a single account, usually maintained by the country’s apex bank and all payments done through the account as well. Already, the distribution company had threatened that it would cut the supply of electricity to all port terminals if the authority failed to pay its debts by the end of October 2015.

Apart from being unable to pay the bills, a source at the authority revealed that the NPA had not been paying salaries of workers and other essential services at the port. The source explained that NPA could not fuel all the patrol boats being used in monitoring the seaport channel.

The source added that if there should be blackout it would affect the 24-hour operations at the various terminals as both customs officials, State Security Service (SSS), Port Police and other security operatives would be unable to discharge their responsibilities effectively.

The source revealed that the company responsible for the dredging of Lagos channel, Lagos Channel Management (LCM), had not received payment for the services it rendered in the last three months. It was also alleged that work on quay apron maintenance had stopped The source said:

“NPA, like some other few government agencies, renders essential services to concessionaires, shipping lines, stevedoring companies among others. “Once there is no fund to execute this service, there would be problem at the port. It is the responsibility of NPA to provide some services at the port as indicated under the concession agreement.”

According to the source, the Federal Government should exempt NPA and other relevant agencies from the Single Treasury Account to avoid problems in some areas. The source noted that the patrol boats recently acquired by the authority were redundant because of lack of fuel to move them around the channel. However, the General Manager, Public Affairs, Capt. Iheanacho Ebubeogu, is yet to react as at the time of filing the report.

Source: NewTelegraph