…Charges Foreign Investors to Tap into
African Maritime Industry For Mutual Benefits.
The Director General of the Nigerian
Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Dakuku Peterside has
stated that Africa is ready to engage on equal terms with the rest of the world
in the area of maritime businesses.
Dakuku who made this known at the
Nor-Shipping 2017 event holding at Lillstrome, Norway from May 29 till June 2,
2017, further stated that it is high time Africa stopped others from engaging
us on their own terms, whether they bring vessels to us or just taking our
cargoes; rather all we want is a mutually beneficial relationship where we can
give and also receive.
“What we are trying to do is to change the
terms of engagement for the rest of the world in terms of maritime businesses.
We want to operate on equal terms not lopsided terms against our own interest,
thereby creating room for a mutually beneficial relationship,” the DG averred.
Dr. Dakuku further stated that Nigeria’s
participation at Nor-Shipping is to say to the world that we have a lot to
offer. “There are lots of opportunities in the maritime administration of
Nigeria; we are diversifying our economy, we are the biggest economy in Africa
with a vast population, vast coastline of over 800 kilometers, endowed with
many natural resources and a good Gross Domestic Product (GDP) amongst others.
So if you have to do business in Africa, you must talk about Nigeria”, he
said.
Meanwhile, the NIMASA DG who was recently
appointed the Chairman of the Association of African Maritime Administrations stated
that part of the initiative to grow the African maritime industry is to rapidly
build capacity amongst nations within the continent.
“If you look at the number of seafarers we
have globally, it appears things are lopsided against Africa and the challenge
appears to be sea time training, so we are talking about sea time and building
capacity,” he said.
He also noted that there are no African
fleets; hence the need for nations to develop their own fleets has become inevitable
while the terms of trade is being looked into.
In his words, “what is going on is that
many other countries of the world just come to Africa to take our cargoes and
off they go; please, how can we all operate on the same footage? Africa has
something to give hence, they are coming to us, therefore they must engage us
on equally beneficial terms”.
He equally added that the African continent
is working together to see how to benefit from one another’s experiences, which
will help in the running of the affairs of their maritime administrations.
Other areas are, enhancing the continent’s
fleets, human capacity development, peer review in terms of maritime
administration, ports state control, coastal control and infrastructural
growth, all geared towards a virile maritime administration in Africa.
Nor-Shipping is a bi-annual event that
brings together Stakeholders in the maritime sector from various continents
aimed at improving the global maritime sector. The event also features
exhibitions amongst others. The main theme for this year’s event is “Catalyst
for Change”.
ISICHEI OSAMGBI
Head, Corporate Communications,
NIMASA
JUNE 1, 2017
