The House of Representatives has frowned on companies operating in Nigeria without licenses.
The House therefore resolved to summon ministers and heads of agencies involved to find out why.
The chairman House Committee On Privatization and Commercialization, Rep, Ibrahim Hamisu Chidari, disclosed this at a meeting with parties to the 5 expired concessions in Abuja.
He said that those to be invited include the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, the Managing Director, Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), the Director of First Impressions General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the Director General Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).
Chidari said that the Managing Directors/CEOs of the 5 expired leases/concessions were invited for a public hearing.
They are ENL Consortium Ltd, AMS, – Ports & Cargo Handling Services Ltd and Josephdam Port Services.
“We invited you to this meeting today to discuss how best to address this prolonged renewal process because of the need to attract investments into our critical port infrastructure which is one of the major focus of this administration.
“From the brief we received from affected parties and MDAs involved in the process, we understand that as of today what is outstanding in concluding the process that started over 5 years ago is the execution of the negotiated supplementary agreements for the respective terminals.
“That is why we invited all stakeholders to see how we can work together to quickly address this concern in the mutual and national interest,” Chidari said.
He pointed out that of the five agencies invited, only one made an appearance.
He also noted that the House would decide on what to do to anyone who fails to honour the committee’s invitation.
Members of the committee while reacting to companies operating with expired concessions, condemned the act and called for the prosecution of the culprits.
Some of the companies that appeared, insisted that they have been paying their concession fees even without licenses.
Emmanuel Ukoh
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