President of PMAWCA & Managing Director/CEO, Nigerian Ports Authority, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho addressing delegates at the ongoing PMAWCA Board of Directors and Ports Statisticians Network Meetings in Luanda, Angola.

The Managing Director/CEO of the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, who doubles as President of the Ports Management Association of West and Central Africa PMAWCA, has urged African nations, especially member states of PMAWCA to optimise their marine potential towards comparative advantage as a deliberate measure to boost economic growth and development.

Addressing delegates at the ongoing PMAWCA Board of Directors and Ports Statisticians Network Meetings in Luanda, Angola, the PMAWCA President stated that the sustainability of maritime African nations lies substantially on optimising their marine resources and efficiency of their seaports.

He observed that countries within the West and Central African region share certain peculiarities of being linked by water as well being linked by challenges and opportunities.

 “The need to translate our marine comparative advantages into opportunities for the collective prosperity of our respective countries has never been more pressing than it is now.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that the demonstrated global leadership of ports in the contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), shows that the sustainability of the world especially Africa rests heavily on the sustainability of our Ports.

“As I stated last week in my engagement with the PMAWCA Women Network at the NPA headquarters in Lagos, apart from being linked by water, countries in West and Central Africa are linked by challenges and opportunities and with the increasing realisation of the leverage that economic cooperation confers in the international arena, we will be doing great disservice to ourselves if we fail to maximise this unity through intensified collaboration of our seaports”, the PMAWCA-boss said.

He further emphasised that data remains the major driver of effective decision- making in port management.

“Coming together with the Statisticians Network, this meeting presents a smart model for regional synergy and partnership, which this administration intends to champion, especially given that data remains the major driver of effective decision making in port management”, Dr Dantsoho said

The NPA-boss commended President Bola Tinubu for creating the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, insisting that the creation of the Ministry has made implementation of audacious plans and policies for the sector much easier.

“With the visionary creation of the new Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, which has re-energised our resolve to invest more in specific sector- talent development in order to harness more ideas from operational think- tanks such as the PMAWCA members”, he noted.

He further disclosed that the Tinubu administration has made the implementation of Nigeria’s audacious plans and policies much easier with the visionary creation of the new Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, which has re-energised the country’s resolve to invest more in sector-specific talent development in order to harness more ideas from operational think tanks such as the PMAWCA.

The PMAWCA President: “Statisticians Network gives us the capacity to expanded training opportunities across member ports. The modernisation of our ports and full automation of our processes through the Port Community System PCS and its corollary, the National Single Window NSW, which is gaining momentum, must be accompanied by strengthened economic cohesion among PMAWCA members, and I will like to register Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to achieving this as soon as possible.

“The specific objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA, which include the progressive elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in goods, liberalisation of trade in services and cooperation amongst others, is pregnant with a lot of opportunities for wealth creation and prosperity, which I am convinced that our partnership and holding of hands under the umbrella of PMAWCA will equip us to safely midwife for the benefit of our respective national economies with domino effect on the economy of the sub-region.”