Help grow maritime sector, operators tell FG

Operators and stakeholders in the maritime sector have blamed the Federal Government for the stunted growth of the industry in the past years.
The founder and first president, Nigerian Shipping Chambers of Commerce, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, who spoke with our correspondent in a telephone interview, argued that government had been slow to take actions on “the ease of doing business” in Nigeria.
According to him, the inauguration of the Presidential Committee on Enactment on ease of doing business should have been done 20 to 30 years ago.
On his assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on the sector, the legal luminary blamed the government for being a clog in its wheel of progress of the economy, especially in the maritime sector.
He said, “It is pathetic that the national budget has not been passed for 2018 and we are in May already. I wonder how the government has been running for the last four months. That is a very major negative result for the government, because without the budget, we cannot turn around a country. No successful nation operates without its budget.
“I would affirmatively say that the Nigerian maritime sector has been very poor, and that there has not been any improvement at all. Just take a look at the roads at Apapa, seeing that alone would tell you that the government has failed in the maritime sector and has failed to address how the sector can contribute to the national economy.”
He added that the maritime sector was potentially the largest, after the oil and gas sector, that could create jobs and contribute to economic development, but that there was no critical government policy that had, so far, been enunciated on how to increase the country’s ship tonnage.
“We talked about port development because without the port, we will not be able to compete with counterparts and cargo traffic, and it is making many ships to divert to other countries, which have better ports running effectively,” he said.
The Managing Director, Excel Freight Services, Mr. John Okafor, alleged that the government did not understand how the maritime sector could be very effective to help the economy grow.
While he admitted that the Treasury Single Account is a good idea, Okafor argued that the implementation of the initiative had slowed down operations in the
sector.
He said, “Maritime institutions like the Nigerian Ports Authority, the Nigeria Shippers Council, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, are not functioning at optimum level, because they are not getting their funds as quickly as before, as TSA is not just slowing down the sector alone, but the entire economy.
“TSA has not impacted well, not because the idea is not a good one but because the way it works is too slow. Government must understand how the sector works, and for the sector to work effectively, it must also have a Minister of Maritime Affairs because, looking at the aviation sector, which is a very small sector in transportation, it has a minister.”