The Nigeria Shipowners Association of Nigeria, NISA has inaugurated its newly elected Executive Council to pilot the affairs of the association for the next two years.
At the event that took place in Lagos, the newly elected President, Otunba Sola Adewunmi thanked members of the association for the confidence reposed in the EXCO to pilot the affairs of the association.
Adewunmi assured that the interest of members will be protected while extending the olive branch to aggrieved members to join hands with him in building a more vibrant association.
“During every election, there are bound to be some people that would be aggrieved, I just want to appeal to everyone to come together so that we can form a very strong association for the benefit of all concerned”, he said.
Adewunmi also used the occasion of the inauguration to announce the readiness of his newly elected EXCO to hit the ground running by disclosing that the association will be moving to a new fully furnished secretariat before the end of May 2023.
“I am also confident that we’ll be moving to our new fully furnished secretariat alongside all the members of staff before the end of May 2023”, the President assured.
He disclosed the readiness of his EXCO to work with the Federal Government to harness the huge potential of the maritime industry.
His words, “We will work with the vision and ideas of the founding fathers of the association, I also have a young vibrant team that can deliver and I believe we can achieve a lot.
“As we all know, shipping is a trillion-naira industry, maritime itself is an industry and shipping is a big aspect of the maritime industry, we’ll be liaising with all the relevant agencies like the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the rest. There are so many areas that we can venture into, we are going to tap into all that shipping encompasses. We are going to work with everybody to ensure that we expand the scope.
“One of the problems we have was that government didn’t really pay attention to shipping as it should and one of the objectives of this association is to ensure that we draw the government’s attention to the industry to bridge the unemployment gap in the country and I am sure we will achieve that.
“We’ll liaise with the new government and make recommendations on how to leverage the many advantages of shipping because we have so many countries living solely on shipping.”
Adewunmi also disclosed that the Nigerian Maritime Expo, NIMAREX, a brainchild of the association will hold before the end of 2023 or early next year.
“We wouldn’t want to put up an haphazard event, so, if the event does not happen in 2023, it will take place in early 2024. We’ll institute a strong committee that will drive this project. As we all know, this event is fashioned after the OTC, we’ll come together to fashion how best to showcase the Nigerian maritime industry to the world”, Adewunmi assured.
On his part, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Chief Isaac Jolapamo disclosed that there is so much work to be done while expressing confidence in the ability of the new executive to hit the ground running now that the baton of leadership has been handed to them.
He expressed optimism that the new administration will be fairer to the new executive.
“Let us see some changes, we’ve been in this fight for so long without getting anywhere, your administration will bring about the realization of the reasons why the association was created in the first place”, he enthused.
Photo: (L-R): Newly inaugurated Executive members of the Nigerian Shipowners’ Association, NISA, Mr. Gbolahan Adu – Publicity Secretary; Mrs. Wor-Degbetuwa Sammy – Treasurer; Otunba Sola Adewumi – President; Otunba Olawale Jubril – General Secretary and Mr. Mohammed Malik – Financial Secretary in a group photograph after inauguration in Lagos on Thursday.
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