The management of the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA has established a regulatory framework for the operation of barges across the nation’s seaports under a new Standard Operating Procedure SOP.
The Acting Managing Director of NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko in a statement in Lagos added that the guidelines must be complied by all operators effective September 1.
The statement was signed by General Manager, Corporate and Strategic communications of NPA Olaseni Alakija.
Bello-Koko made these known while speaking during an interactive session with members of Barge Operators of Nigeria BOAN who paid him a working visit at the authority’s corporate headquarters.
He added that further to this development, the authority will review the modalities for the registration of barge operating license with emphasis on operators meeting the Minimum Safety Standards MSS of their barges.
He pointed out that failure to meet this requirement would bar an operator from using the channel.
The NPA, he said, will capture a comprehensive profile of all barge operators highlight the carriers’ corporate name, to make for easy identification, especially in line with efforts to check the deployment of dilapidated barges.
