From left: Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh; Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, chairman, Nigerian Ship Owners Forum, Mrs. Margaret Orakwusi; and Special Assistant to NIMASA DG on Communications and Strategy, Mr. Ubong Essien, during a courtesy visit by members of the NIMASA management team to Edo State Government House, Benin City recently.

The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh has expressed the agency’s commitment to partner the Edo State Government towards the realisation of its River Port project, especially in terms of capacity building. The agency says that human capacity development remains a basic catalyst to grow the maritime sector.

The DG spoke in Benin City, the Edo State capital when he led a team from the agency on a courtesy visit to Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State in the government house.

The Edo State Governor, while speaking on the River Port project, described it as being critical and strategic to Nigeria’s economy, noting that the State Government is willing to partner NIMASA to bring the project to fruition.

“Edo State is very unique in its ecology; it is a nexus for Nigeria hence the strategic role the Benin River Port would play in the movement of goods to other parts of the country. You can connect the east and west from Edo State within two hours, so this means that in six hours goods from Apapa Port in Lagos will be everywhere in the country.

“We are locating this port in a place that is perhaps Nigeria’s largest and richest onshore gas reserve. You can imagine that this energy exists to drive whatever amount of industrialisation that needs to be”, the Governor said.

While commending NIMASA management for its blue economy initiative, Governor Obaseki stated that the economy of Nigeria must be diversified.

Earlier, NIMASA DG, Dr. Jamoh acknowledged that the Benin River Port project is a testament that Edo State understands the benefits of shipping and assured that the agency would assist the state in exploring all the opportunities provided by the blue economy initiative.

He noted that the agency was ready to sponsor indigenes of the state who are below 25 years of age to Greece on fully-funded scholarship to study maritime related courses. The DG also noted that human and infrastructural capacity development is key to the growth of the maritime industry in Nigeria.

“NIMASA’s drive to develop the blue economy in partnership with littoral states in the country is aimed at achieving a diversified economy for the country. Shipping is the alternative to oil and the shipping sector in Nigeria can produce more than three quarters of the nation’s earnings from the oil sector.

“To achieve this, we at NIMASA are engaging the littoral states in Nigeria to develop strategies that would lead to maximising the potential of the sector within the next 10 years when other countries of the world are projecting to end the use of fossil fuel”, the DG also said.

He commended the Edo State Government on the Benin River Port project, which he said, would be a revenue booster for the state as he identified Kano, Plateau and Gombe states as states that have hugely invested in the development of Inland Dry Ports IDP, though they do not fall within the littoral state category.