NPA Reports Raising US$2m in 5 Months

By John Dennis Weah
MONROVIA – The Managing Director of the National Port Authority (NPA), Sekou A. Dukuly, has reported what he considered major boost in revenue under his administration at the National Port Authority, fondly called the “Gateway to Liberia’s Economy.”

Speaking at the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism (MICAT) where he, along with some of his able lieutenants, on Tuesday June 25, 2024 appeared to participate in the Ministry’s regular press briefing, Dukuly reported that in five months of his incumbency, the NPA raised US$2 million in revenue.

He expressed gratitude to President Boakai for choosing “the high caliber of professionals on the NPA team”, as he put, which is able to raise such an amount in five months despite challenges faced by the government.

To date, June 25, 2024, the Government of Liberia, through the National Port Authority had contributed two million United States Dollars in its general revenue account, Dukuly reported.

“In other context, in six years’ time, the former landlord, apparently referring to the immediate past governing administration, he said such a huge amount of revenue could not be generated.

According to him, the Coalition for Democratic Change administration, in their six years of entire existence as a government, only accounted for the generation of US$4 million. The Analyst could not verify the claim.

The NPA managing director further disclosed that the team under his leadership has improved relationship with the largest concessionaires at the port. He said the new team has regularized meetings with Acelor Mittal, the largest port user at the Port of Buchanan in Grand Bassa County, and also initiated regular meetings schedule on a monthly basis.

He further said he and his team have been conducting an outlay and digitizing the port to be able to have information sharing network,  where information will come out of the Ports of Buchanan in  Grand Bassa, Greenville in Sinoe and Harper in Maryland Counties.

Speaking of other areas of improvement at the NPA, Dukuly highlighted the regular payment of retirement benefits to employees, electrification of the Monrovia port 24/7, installation of night time navigational aid, unlike before when a vessel coming into the port would wait until the next morning to berth.

Describing the workforce under his administration as effective, the NPA boss also divulged that he had started a comprehensive credential auditing of employees, the effective auditing of payroll, a well-coordinated access pass system, upgrading it from manual to digital where someone will not use anybody’s pass to enter the port.

“For the first time in our country’s history, we received a vessel with 123 tourists onboard,” he reported further, adding that his management team was negotiating benefit payments for former board members and also negotiating marine services that were terminated last year during the past government and have not been renewed.

Further briefing the public during the MICAT press conference, MD Dukuly said two weeks ago, there was an incident reported about a staff that was beaten in Buchanan, with some describing the incident as being politically motivated.

But he said President Joseph Boakai is president for every Liberian, and “there’s no UP-NPA, CDC-NPA and that if you worked for the National Port Authority, we don’t believe that you should be witch-hunted”.

Dukuly assured the public actions that would be taken based on the outcome of the investigation instituted after the incident.