New NPA, Managing Director, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho
The newly appointed Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Managing Director, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, is no doubt one of the articulated appointments by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu giving Nigerians high hope in the sector.
Analysts see it as an appointment of the man who saw his tomorrow and planned towards attaining it.
He came to the NPA through the platform of the compulsory National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, straight on graduation from University of Maiduguri in 1992. Every graduate of this country pass through the NYSC system but how many of them that end up being retained remains the big question. He came into NPA and probably due to his commitment and dedication, he was retained.
Some may be contented with their status as an employee of a remarkable organization like NPA but it is not so with our subject matter. He seems to have seen his destiny tied to the NPA and so began to nurture it to reality.
He went ahead to obtain a Masters’ Degree in International Transport from Cardiff University of Wales in 1999. He did not stop there, to allay any barrier on his drive to the top, he pursued and got a Doctorate Degree in Maritime Technology from John Moore University, Liverpool, UK in 2015. With a well-tailored academic backing, his way to the top becomes seamless.
Today, the young naïve graduate who walked into NPA as a Youth Corps Member about 32 years ago, is ensconced as its Managing Director is the present reality.
Apart from his academic acumens, he grew in the rank and file of the maritime sector beginning as a marketing officer, to being an assistant manager in the commercial department which he combined with the roles of Special Assistant and Personal Assistant to some management officers at different times.
He was General Manager at the commercial department at Apapa Port and later became the senior manager at the NPA headquarters from 2014 to 2017.
The job took him to Onne, in Rivers State in 2020, where he was Port Manager. He was Assistant General Manager in 2021 and soon became the MD’s Technical Assistant from 2021 to 2022. He got a political appointment as Chief of Staff of Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, the former minister of transportation, within the same year.
Dantsoho has also served on many delegations representing the Maritime sector and NPA at conferences and conventions, locally and internationally.
Going by his antecedents, Nigerians expect an impactful regime from Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho as Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority.
