The Minister of Transportation, Chief Rotimi Amaechi has announced move being made buy the federal government to privatise the nation’s port as one of the measures to re-position the maritime sector for greater efficiency and competitiveness.
The Minister who spoke during the celebration of the 2016 World Maritime Day with the theme “Shipping, Indispensable to the World” held in Lagos said that the sector is facing myriad of challenges bothering on non-competitiveness, low level of investment, absence of requisite funding, low implementation and enforcement of existing laws amongst others.
He said that the government is bringing up a robust strategy that will address the challenges that may hinder the growth of the sector.
“As part of a comprehensive action to address these challenges and ensure efficiency and cost effectiveness of the shipping industry, a number of measures are being put in place, including the privatization of the nation’s ports, while various regulatory Agencies are being repositioned for effective service delivery.”
Amaechi said that the Transport Sector Reform Bills currently before the National Assembly are receiving legislative consideration and it is hoped that the expeditious passage of the bills would give effect to the proposed reform aimed at strengthening the relevant maritime Agencies for effective performance.
The Minister said that thew reform being put in place would bring to an end, all forms of illegalities on the nation’s waterways.
While discussing the paper presented by Captain Adamu Biu on “Growth and Development of Shipping Industry in Nigeria: Creating Enabling Environment,” the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside said that the management has already began the process of repositioning the Agency through its Medium Term Strategic Growth Plan built around the Management’s vision of Reforming, Restructuring and Repositioning the Agency towards the growth and development of the maritime sector.
“There must be a long term strategy on our policy framework and its implementation. NIMASA as an Agency has already drawn up its own Medium Term Policy to engender higher efficiency and productivity.”
Dr. Peterside who noted that the dearth of human resources in the maritime industry is a global phenomenon, assured stakeholders that NIMASA is committed to building the requisite manpower through adequate training and thanked the Shipowners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) for accepting to provide 100 sea time berths for cadets of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria in a phased programme.
The Director General said that in achieving a competitive maritime sector, security is a very key factor and as such the Agency has revisited its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian Navy and other relevant Agencies to ensure safety and security in the maritime domain.
Present at the event were Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT), Mr. Sabiu Zakari, Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Usman, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) Barrister Hassan Bello, Chief Adebayo Sarumi amongst several other Industry Stakeholders. [myad]
