BY LEKAN SOTE
If you don’t know what the blue economy means, it shows that you are not even aware of the recent move by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Chairman of Nigeria’s National Economic Council, to salvage the sinking ship of Nigeria’s economy.
Well, the blue economy is about the marine or maritime industry and its benefits for the citizens of any country of the world. Promoters of this approach to rekindling Nigeria’s economy thought it would be a good idea to deploy the gravitas of the office of the Vice President behind the laudable project.
The World Bank defines blue economy as the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and (creation of) jobs while preserving the health of (the) ocean ecosystem.”
But the European Commission thinks it encompasses, “All economic activities related to oceans, seas and coasts. It covers a wide range of interlinked established and emerging sectors.”
To Conservation International, “Blue economy also includes economic benefits that may not be marketed, such as carbon storage, coastal protection, cultural values and biodiversity.”
Center for the Blue Economy says it’s about “Overall contribution of the oceans to economies, the need to address the environmental and ecological sustainability of the oceans, and the ocean economy as a growth opportunity for both developed and developing countries.”
Others think the blue economy is the use of the sea and its resources for sustainable economic development, as well as economic activity in the maritime sector, whether sustainable or not.
“Clearly, Nigeria ought to be looking inward more diligently than before, in its efforts to rebuild its economy. And the blue economy offers a way, it is a very good place to start Nigeria’s economic renaissance”
The common thread in all these submissions is that the maritime industry has hidden treasures that man has not fully exploited as well as its environmental benefits. The blue or water-based economy is as ancient as it is yet to be fully exploited for its immense potential for humanity on Planet Earth. To borrow a phrase from accountants, it’s a going concern.
Yet there is an important aspect that has been overlooked or ignored: Marine or water sports are as much a business as it is recreation. If you have witnessed the America Cup Competition of racing boats that takes place in Newport, Rhode Island in America, you will appreciate the economic potentials of water sports. America Cup Competition was the launch pad used by Ted Turner to promote CNN Television Network.
As of now in Nigeria, not many people have taken boat racing very seriously apart from members of the two boat clubs in Ikoyi and beside Army Officers’ Mess on Lagos Island. Imagine how much an annual boat racing competition can positively impact the tax revenue and economy of Lagos State.
Competitors can come from all the littoral states along Nigeria’s Atlantic Ocean coastal line. Think of the sale of boats, boating gear, hotel accommodation, food and entertainment and loads of souvenirs that out-of-towners can buy and take back home in other parts of Nigeria, Africa and the world.
Recently, Vice President Osinbajo inaugurated an Expanded Committee on Sustainable Blue Economy that is composed of Nigeria Ports Authority; the opaque Nigeria Maritime and Safety Agency, to be joined by Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Power, Finance, Environment, Trade and Industry, Agriculture and Water Resources, agencies.
Other new members are Chief of Naval Staff; Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service; Lake Chad Basin Commission; Nigeria Economic Summit Group, a private-sector collective; and Governors of the following states, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Borno.
Someone suggests that the Central Bank of Nigeria, Africa Development Bank and some private sector banking and financial institutions should have also been co-opted into the expanded group of stakeholders.
At the Inaugural, the Vice President observed: “The blue economy is a new frontier for economic development and a means of diversifying the use of resources from the oceans, seas, rivers and lakes for the wellbeing of the people…
“The ocean economy, as an emerging economic frontier, applies to ocean-based industry activities and assets, goods and services of the maritime ecosystem.”
The Vice President also suggests that the scope of a blue economy can encompass living resources, minerals, energy, transport trade, tourism and recreation, carbon sequestration (long-term storage of carbon in the ocean) and coastal protection.
Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation, that superintendents NPA, NIMASA and MAN, thinks the blue economy can increase government revenue and employment and raise Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.
The blue economy includes fisheries, tourism, maritime transportation, offshore renewable energy, seabed extractive activities, marine biology and biospecting.
Biospecting or biodiversity is the science of the inquiry into the use of small molecules, biochemical and genetic information to produce goods for the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, agricultural and bio-treatment industries.
If properly tapped, the blue economy should greatly enhance land and ocean water management, engender better treatment and governance of marine ecosystems, encourage more equitable global health standards, significantly lower carbon emissions and improve efforts to roll back toxic climate change.
Experts have projected that the value of the global blue economy is in the neighbourhood of $24 trillion, superseding America’s Gross Domestic Product of $22.99 trillion and the total annual revenue of $2.1 trillion of the global petroleum industry in 2021. You can imagine the potential of the blue economy if the Nigerian government will go beyond cheap talk and take appropriate steps in a timely manner.
Investment in the domestic blue economy sector of Nigeria should make up for the dwindling foreign investments in Nigeria. A report indicates that Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria dipped by 32 per cent from $1.03 billion in 2020 to $698.8 million in 2021.
Also, Foreign Portfolio Investment –in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and exchange traded funds– dropped by 34 per cent, from $5.16 billion in 2020 to $3.39 billion in 2021. The fall is even more spectacular when you consider that as recently as 2019; FPI to Nigeria was a whopping $16.38 billion.
Clearly, Nigeria ought to be looking inward more diligently than before, in its efforts to rebuild its economy. And the blue economy offers a way, it is a very good place to start Nigeria’s economic renaissance.
This outgoing government should at least lay the foundation for the next government to take the blue economy to a higher level. That, to quote some people, is the irreducible minimum that this government can do for Nigerian citizens who have been suffering from the woes of an unplanned economy.
While recognising that the digital economy is expanding in leaps and bounds, Senator Bola Tinubu, a Nigerian presidential aspirant, thinks it is wise to continuously engage the brick-and-mortar sectors of the economy, which includes the blue economy.
He warns that Nigeria should not be fooled by the current rise in price of oil that is artificially induced by the Ukrainian-Russian War.
His words: “Notwithstanding the (Ukrainian-Russian) War-induced surge in oil prices, the future (of Nigeria) will rely less on oil and gas.” He then warned, “We dare not predicate our economic destiny on a resource of diminishing return.”
While experts predict that oil is going out of fashion, the waters — the oceans, seas, rivers, rivulets, streams, lakes, falls, geysers and glaciers– will forever remain. This means that transactions of the blue economy will remain with man for a very long time.
Nigeria should take fullest advantage of this inexhaustible resource to shore up its economic fortunes.
