From left: Managing Director, NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman; member, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Ibrahim Yahaya; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transport, Dr. Magdalene Ajani; Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Maritime Safety, Education, and Administration, Lynda Ikpeazu;Managing Director, NIWA, Dr. George Moghalu; Executive Director, Finance and Administration, NIMASA, Mr. Chudi Ofodile; and Chairman, National Maritime Transport Policy Committee, Dr. Paul Adalikwu, during stakeholders validation forum on the draft policy held in Lagos recently.

Minister of State for Transport, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, has said that the National Maritime Transport Policy being developed by Nigeria would lead to improved Foreign Direct Investment FDI inflows and enhance the ability of the Nigerian maritime sector to compete internationally.

The minister, who spoke in Lagos at the opening of a stakeholders’ validation forum on the draft policy, said the transport policy, when fully operational would also give Nigeria her pride of place in the African Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA agreement. The free trade area, the largest in the world, was founded in 2018, while its implementation came into effect from January 1, 2021.

The meeting was organised by the Federal Ministry of Transport to get stakeholders’ buy-in and input, as the policy document was being finetuned. The transport policy is expected to usher in a regime of robust maritime transport system in the country in line with international best practice.

Saraki noted the strategic economic importance of maritime transport, saying adoption of the transport policy would mark a paradigm shift in Nigeria’s economic competitiveness.   

Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, the minister said: “The National Maritime Transport Policy is a framework that will guide and sharpen the activities, actors and the modus operandi in the maritime sector. It is an all-encompassing document that will skyrocket the sector to compete favourably in the global market. That is why this   document is extremely important and crucial to the development of the sector.”

“This Policy, which industry stakeholders had clamoured for since nearly two decades, Will change the narrative in the maritime sector of our dear country and result in a paradigm shift that is generational.

“It is however encouraging to know that the maritime policy is coming up at a time when Nigeria has ratified the AfCTA Agreement and deposited it with the African Union Secretariat. This is an agreement that will place Nigeria in place of leadership if we adequately prepare for the protocols. Therefore, it is expedient for us to make the maritime sector ready for the AfCFTA Transit Protocols and other international protocols for us to compete favourably in the regional and global market.”

Recall that Nigeria had deposited its instrument of ratification of the AfCFTA agreement on December 5, 2020, becoming the 34th member state to formally ratify the treaty. The free trade area was created by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement among 54 of the African Union’s 55 member states.

It is the world’s largest free trade area since the World Trade Organisation WTO came in being, and a game-changer in African and world trade, with a market of more than 1.2 billion people, about $3 trillion combined Gross Domestic Product GDP, and the potential of growing intra-African trade by over 50 per cent, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

The Permanent secretary, who played a dual role at the event, said policy was the bedrock of development, and the condition of the maritime sector of a nation determined its future development.

 “Nigeria, like other nations, has recognised the integral role policies play in developmental process and, as such, engendered different processes to drive her quest for a sustainable, feasible and generic National Maritime Transport Policy. This will boost the maritime sector and widen the horizon to enable it serve the domestic market and have comparative advantage globally”, Ajani said.

Meanwhile, chairman of the National Maritime Transport Policy Committee, Dr. Paul Adalikwu, said, “The maritime sector cannot be administered successfully without a policy document that contains genuine, reliable and updated data” that can stand the test of time.

Adalikwu, who is also Director in charge of Maritime Safety and Security in the ministry, said the policy document is aimed to develop “a maritime industry that is income generating, self-sufficient, competitive with comparative advantage in the regional and global markets.”

The event featured goodwill messages from Chairman, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Danjuma Goje, and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Maritime Safety, Education, and Administration, Hon. Lynda Ikpeazu.

There were also messages from captains of industry, including chairman, Nigerian Ship Owners Forum, Mrs. Margaret Orakwusi; Chairman, National Seafarers Welfare Board NSWB, Otunba Kunle Folarin; and President, Ship Owners Association of Nigeria SOAN, Dr. McGeorge Onyung.

Dignitaries present at the occasion included Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, and Managing Director, National Inland Waterways Authority NIWA, Dr. George Moghalu, while the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, was represented by the Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Mr. Chudi Ofodile.

There were also representations from all the parastatals in the Federal Ministry of Transport as well as major associations in the country’s maritime industry.