…Says three years short to review progress in maritime industry
Former Minister of Interior, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho has called for the optimization of investments in the nation’s maritime industry as centre of Nigeria’s international trade.
Iheanacho who made this call in an interview with newsmen in Lagos recently said that Nigerians needed to be discerning in terms of the pictures that they designed into the port and shipping system.
He harped on the need for government to enact policies that would allow Nigerians to maximally participate in shipping because they would create values locally, create jobs and also have the opportunity to benefit from the transfer of technology.
In his words,” We need to optimize investment in the maritime. The maritime is the centre for our international trade, we export crude oil, we bring in finished products, these things are carried onboard ships, they also need a port. So, we need to be discerning in terms of the pictures that we design into the ports and shipping system.
“We need to be able to enact policies that will allow our people to maximally participate because they will create values locally, will create jobs and will also have the opportunity to benefit from them the transfer of technology.
“So, those are the things that we would do and we will be guided by those requirements in reviewing our maritime laws.
Meanwhile, the former Minister of Interior has said that three years is a short period within which to review the position of maritime adding that the time scale for reviewing things in the maritime sector is much longer.
Iheanacho who took this position while asked to make an assessment of the nation’s maritime industry in the last three years of President Buhari’s administration observed that looking at the time it takes to build a ship and the time it takes to establish new docking facilities, three years was inadequate.
According to him,” The thing is, it is work in progress and we should focus our policy makers on the few points that they have to look at. In regards to the ports, it is marching the input and output process, in regards to shipping, we have to create opportunities for our people to participate in the international trade that serves our country whether it is in the export of crude oil, we need to have ships that are owned and manned by Nigerians, whether in the evacuation of refined products back to the country, Nigerians should participate in it.
“And that is why we talk about the need for us to establish local refineries because when you have local refineries, the maximum value addition will be made possible if we have a situation where the oil that is produced in our soil is refined in the refineries that are located in our soil”.
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