…Says Cabotage alone capable of raking in N4 trillion in revenue
Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olisa Agbakoba has said that the maritime sector in Nigeria is bleeding as well as hurting from many years of neglect and underdevelopment.
Agbakoba who state this on the sideline of the Focus Group Meeting organized by the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping in Lagos yesterday added that what Nigeria needed now were people in government who understood that the maritime sector in the country was bleeding adding that “once they understand it, the enabling environment is all that is needed”.
While emphasizing that the maritime sector in Nigeria had suffered neglect over the years, he noted that the problem was that the government was not showing enough interest as according to him, government had to create an enabling environment for shipping industry in Nigeria to thrive.
He said,” The highest policy level player in government that oversee shipping is the Director of Maritime Services, it is way too low. It is in a small capacity which is why I called for a Minister for shipping because we have a Minister for Aviation but I also see the point that it might become too disparaged. So, we need an integrated Minister of Transport; road, rail, shipping, aviation just like in the UK, the Secretary of Transportation has four under Secretaries with each of the running a sector.
“Maritime sector is not even mentioned in the government’s ERGP (Economic Recovery and Growth Plan), then you can imagine. It is not mentioned in the Vision 2020 and the problem with shipping is that it is not visible. It is not like the bank that you see the building. That is the problem that I have discovered in my forty years in the maritime sector. People don’t realize it because it is in the water.
“If Cabotage was well applied, it will give us something like about four trillion in revenue because transportation is a huge business. Why do you think Trump is changing American trade policy? The answer is around the maritime sector, you wrap around trade policy. If I ever had the opportunity of becoming Nigeria’s President, I am going to hike up all the tariffs; we are a dumping ground in anything”.
While stressing the fact that Nigeria had no building blocks, he however added that without the government realizing that the maritime sector was a big sector, the country may not make any headway.
“That is the first thing, realization; they simply have to realize that the shipping sector is huge. When they realize it, they will now ask, how do we get it done and that is where we come in but right now, you can see that we are just struggling to even be noticed in an economy that is bleeding, Nigeria is technically challenged. Nigeria is what the economists called a technically insolvent country because if you line up our asset and our liabilities, government cannot pay, it is in the negative.
‘So, we need to have people in government that understand that this is sector that is bleeding, once they understand it, the enabling environment is all that is needed”, he concluded.
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