NPA unveils ultra modern records centre

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has inaugurated a state-of-the-art ultra modern “e-Documents Management and Records Centre’’ to sustain its operational efficiency.

NPA’s Acting Managing Director, Mohammed Bello-Koko, made the disclosure in a statement by Olaseni Alakija, the authority’s General Manager, Corporate and Strategic communications, on Monday in Lagos.

Bello-Koko described the centre as a testament of the authority’s efforts to develop a seamless customer-based services and operations.

He said that NPA would sustain competitiveness in the sub-region by giving priority to documents’ safety through automation and digitisation.

Bello-Koko added that in adherence to the plan to deploy a ‘360 degree’ document management solution, the authority would soon migrate from physical archiving to digitisation.

This, he said, will be done via Electronic Documents Management Solution (EDMS) with strategies to localise same at port locations as functional retention centres.

“At the moment the authority has two other functional retention centres in Apapa and Port Harcourt to serve the Lagos and eastern ports, respectively.

“This is in addition to another record centre undergoing automation located in the Apapa Port area,’’ he said.

Bello-Koko said that the speed and seamless nature of the EDMS in records storage and processing would have bearing on the organisation’s desire to achieve customer satisfaction.

“In fact this event is very much in synchronisation with our drive towards attaining compliance status of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).’’

He ex expressed confidence that the authority’s vision of deploying a single window to access records across all port locations would be realised.

Bello-Koko urged staff of the authority to take ownership of the facility, which he said was expected to serve as an antidote to vandalism, theft and arson.

According to him, it is envisaged that before the end of 2021, the pilot project of the end-to-end documents management solution would have been achieved.