The federal government, says it will launch a roadmap to chart a policy agenda for the for the Marine and Blue Economy sector.
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, stated this as a panel discussant at the 29th session of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), with the main theme: “Pathways to Sustainable Economic Transformation and Inclusion”.
The minister in a statement issued Tuesday by the Ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Olujimi Oyetomi, acknowledged the timeliness of the summit noting and as well assuring that outcome of innovative ideas, deliberations and proffered suggestions would be considered with focus on developing Nigeria into a hub of maritime trade and ancillary services in Africa.
He said: “Tonight’s session is the latest in our consultation with industry stakeholders, the maritime and the Blue Economy sector. We understand the critical role the maritime sector plays in enabling business in an import dependant economy, such as ours, it is imperative that we move more quickly towards improving the navigability of our waters, engage the draught of our ports, achieve 24 hours cargo clearance, and ensure adequate connectivity of our ports to hinterlands with efficient road and rail networks.
“Challenges of the maritime sector are well known and documented, slow pace of legislative reforms and weak sector governance to infrastructure deficits, inefficient Port management, poor road network, multimodal facilities, the dominance of foreign shipping companies, non-competitiveness of our ports compared to our West African neighbours, port inefficiency and congestion and other malpractices.”
Projecting the ministry’s directive in the next four years, the minister stated that it is imperative that the ministry having identified these inhibitors, works towards improving the navigability of our waters, engage the draught of our ports, achieve 24 hours cargo clearance, and ensure adequate connectivity of our ports to hinterlands with efficient road and rail network creation.
“We seek to introduce new business models that can ultimately develop our capabilities and ensure the continual dredging of our inland waterways.”
Oyetola disclosed his resolve to get presidential endorsement of the use of scanners in port operations in the country, noting: “all over the world, seaports have gone digital, and digitalisation is mainly used to drive efficiency and remove human contacts that are usually very slow and breed corruption.
He said, “For Nigerian ports to take up it’s natural position as a maritime hub for countries in West and Central Africa, there must be an enforcement of strict digitalization of all Port operations in the country and an immediate rehabilitation of the Nigerian ports to bring about an upgrade of ports facilities and improvement to make room for our ports to become revolutionised and comparable with others in the adviced maritime nations.”