NPERA won’t trigger inter-agency conflict, Akutah assures maritime community

 

 

Maureen Aguta

The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA), Dr Pius Akutah, has allayed fears of a looming turf war among maritime agencies over alleged overlapping mandates under the new NPERA Act.

Akutah said the legislation establishing NPERA was subjected to a comprehensive review by relevant government agencies before it was transmitted to the National Assembly, insisting that the process was designed to eliminate areas of conflict and ensure clarity of responsibilities.

He spoke on Tuesday when the executive members of the Maritime Correspondents’ Organisation of Nigeria (MARCON) paid a courtesy visit to the agency.

The NPERA boss said the assurance was necessary against the backdrop of concerns in some quarters that the emergence of a new ports economic regulator could trigger jurisdictional disputes with existing institutions in the maritime sector.

According to him, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, anticipated the possibility of overlapping mandates and consequently convened the heads of relevant agencies, alongside the Permanent Secretary and Director of Legal Services of the ministry, to scrutinise the proposed legislation.

Akutah explained that the exercise was exhaustive, with the document reviewed “paragraph by paragraph, line by line, word by word” to identify provisions requiring clarification, amendment or retention.

He said the participating agencies subsequently endorsed the agreed document by signing every page before it was submitted to the minister.

The minister, he added, prepared the necessary cover note and forwarded the reviewed document to the National Assembly, stressing that the legislation eventually passed by the lawmakers was substantially the version that emerged from the inter-agency review.

Akutah therefore dismissed fears of an institutional crisis, saying the agencies were fully aware of the provisions of the law and had participated in the process leading to its enactment.
“There is no room for any crisis between agencies.”

He said the heads of the various maritime institutions were primarily concerned with the development of the sector and were prepared to collaborate in delivering the reforms required to reposition Nigeria’s maritime industry.

Akutah also cautioned against viewing the establishment of NPERA as an attempt by one government agency to displace or dominate another.

He argued that government institutions were created to serve the Nigerian state and should not be treated as personal territories by officials occupying positions at any given time.

The NPERA chief executive said the agencies had continued to engage one another since the passage of the law, adding that collaboration rather than competition would be critical to the successful implementation of the new regulatory framework.

He urged stakeholders to prioritise the development of stronger institutions over the emergence of powerful individuals, warning that inter-agency rivalry and the protection of institutional territories could undermine government policies and ultimately damage the national economy.

Akutah further linked effective coordination among maritime agencies to the Federal Government’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy by 2030, noting that non-oil exports would be central to achieving the target.

He said Nigeria could not achieve such an ambitious economic objective if its ports and maritime institutions remained fragmented by jurisdictional disputes, bureaucratic competition or conflicting regulatory processes.

The NPERA chief therefore called on the media and other stakeholders to promote a clear understanding of the new regulatory framework, rather than amplify fears of conflict between the new agency and existing maritime institutions.

He stressed that the objective of NPERA was to strengthen regulation, improve efficiency and create an environment capable of attracting investment and boosting the contribution of the maritime sector to national economic development.