The Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, has urged the staff of the agency to work hard to improve their productivity and boost revenue generation.

Bala Usman made the plea during the 40th anniversary of the Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government Owned Companies (SSASCGOC), Maritime Branch, which held recently in Lagos.

Bala Usman, who was represented by the General Manager, Human Resources of NPA, Yahaya Buka Gana, urged the workers to maintain their drive towards integrity, honesty and transparency. She encouraged the union to continue to embrace dialogue with the management of NPA to resolve industrial disputes.

She said: “The present management of NPA has demonstrated in many ways that the welfare of workers is of topmost priority and you will recall that the management held the first-ever interactive session with all categories of workers in December 2017.

“The meeting enabled the management to rub minds and compare notes with the union leaders on the overall performance of the authority in the discharge of its mandate,” she said.

She also lauded the Senior Staff Association for ensuring that industrial harmony pervades in the nation’s maritime industry, adding that “this is a product of commitment to the vision and mission of the authority”.

President, SSASCGOC, Adamu Ya’u, urged the ports’ authority to work toward achieving quick delivery of cargo and improve the turnaround time of vessels. He said all the roads leading to the nation’s seaports should be urgently rehabilitated to achieve this goal.

Ya’u said an improvement in the turnaround time of vessels would improve the earnings (revenue) of the NPA. He said the vision and mission statement of the authority would have been difficult to achieve, if there was lack of harmony between the management and union.

“The association had provided the needed strategy to see to the growth of NPA and the welfare of the workforce; and grievances were jointly tackled by the two umbrella unions of NPA, which include SSASCGOC, Maritime Branch and Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN),” he said.

•Sourced from The Guardian report

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