The concession of Terminal B of Warri Old Port has been awarded to Ocean & Cargo Terminal Services Limited following the approval from the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) on June 18, 2018.
The council approved the technical and commercial bid of $100.78 million submitted by Ocean & Cargo Terminal Services Limited before the Federal Government signed a concession agreement with the firm on Tuesday.
In April 2018, Ocean and Cargo Services Limited was chosen as the winner during the bidding process for the operation of Terminal B, Warri Old Port. The SIFAX Group-led consortium scored 82.70% in a bid, a lesser score compared to the 87.84% scored by its rival in the bid- Ecomarine Consortium. But Ecomarine Consortium was disqualified from the process, due to “wrongful” submission of bidding documents.
The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh said over 23 terminals have been concessioned to private operators, rating it as one of the success stories of the privatisation and commercialisation programme in Nigeria. He also advised the concessionaire to adhere to the terms of the concession agreement.
“the concession of the seaports in Nigeria represents one of the success stories of the privatisation and commercialisation programme in Nigeria.
“The concessionaire is expected to focus on these objectives as they perform their business. The government expects nothing less than strict adherence to the terms of the concession agreement from the concessionaire.”
Benefit of the concession agreement
The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Alex Okoh who signed the document on behalf of the Government said the plan is to modernise port development, reduce the cost of shipping and clearing goods at the ports and relieve the Government of the burden of financing the sector, while also increasing efficiency in the country’s ports and improve service delivery.
Bidding process for the operation of Terminal B, Warri Old Port
Following the rehabilitation and reconstruction works by the Federal Government and approval by the National Council on Privatisation, placement of adverts inviting Expressions of Interest from prospective concessionaires for the concession of the terminal were made in national dailies on June 23, 2014.
Thirteen Expressions of Interest were selected and evaluated after the closing of submission. Then seven firms achieved the minimum qualification mark and were prequalified for the issuance of Requests of Proposals and Information Memorandum after evaluation. But the issuance of Request for Proposals to respective concessionaires was delayed for two years before the process continued, with Ocean & Cargo Terminal Services Limited emerging as bid winner.
