Africa-Press – Liberia. The Managing Director of the National Port Authority, Sekou Dukuly, describes criticisms against his performance as unfounded and mere propaganda.
“Those claims you hear about the Port are unfounded, and we are not deterred because we are following President Boakai’s message of ‘no business as usual’ and that the NPA under our leadership will never be the same,” he maintains.
Speaking in an interview on Monday, March 17, 2025, at the NPA in Monrovia, Mr. Dukuly said that he is more focused on President Joseph N. Boakai’s agenda and that the NPA under his leadership will never be the same.
According to him, the Port contributed US$3 million to the national budget in the first year after his appointment as Managing Director.
Outlining his achievements, he notes that the last 14 months have not been easy but rewarding.
Director Dukuly explained that when the government took over, not only the NPA but every institution was challenged, from infrastructure to legacy, hiring, and unpaid bills.
He narrates that for the Port to get back on the right track, the right people need to be hired and placed in the right position.
Speaking of international partnership, he discloses that the Chinese Embassy near Monrovia trained 25 employees of the entity in China, adding that all of the trained employees are contributing to the Port.
While in China, he discloses that the beneficiaries went to Nimbo Polytechnic University, saying the training was meant to strengthen their technical skills in global port management.
Talking about major agreements that he met on the ground prior to his appointment by the President, he names the Marine Service Agreement as number one, saying, “We were able to review that agreement. It should have been reviewed, I believe, in August of 2023.”
Asked about his plans for 2025, Director Dukuly says his leadership will focus on abiding by the Public Finance Management (PFM) law, which states that NPA should contribute from the dividend.
“So, we are going to wait for that dividend to be declared, and we will make that portion of that dividend payment when it’s declared to the central government. But again, don’t forget about also taxes that have been withheld from concessions,” he reminds.
Director Dukuly: “When people look at contribution to the national budget, they look at the port as a gateway. When I appeared before the Senate to discuss the budget, the Senators told me they were going to assess the National Port Authority at about US$5.8 million, which I said was not a fair assessment.”
“If you compare year to year, you see practices that were here prior to even the last regime. They will collect that money and use it on operations and other things, but will not send it to the government. So, if you look at our first-year performance, we were able to contribute about $8.1 million. So you contributed $3 million last year to the national budget”, he adds.
According to him, when he took office, this amount was pushed and renewed for a year because the previous government didn’t put in the necessary framework to get another five years done. “Both parties could not agree. They pushed it for one year. We inherited that.”
Dukuly says in five to six months, they were able to successfully negotiate that with folks at Avian Terminals.
“So we reviewed that agreement and renewed it for another five years. Now, the biggest takeaway to that is royalty from that concession increased from 15% to 20%, not only that, we Liberianized the provider.”
He reveals that for the first time, Avian Terminals and all partners were informed that after five years, the national proletariat would take over the Marine Services Program.
To be able to do that, we need to train our Marine pilots, our seafarers, and so forth. So, there are currently librarians that we met in our program, and we are in the process of adding an additional four to five Liberians.
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