Maritime industry can generate N500bn yearly, says Amaechi

Amaechi said this on Monday during a one-day summit organised by Tell Magazine and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) in Lagos.

He said the shipping sub-sector is a major aspect of the maritime industry that is crucial to the economy and can be the second revenue earner for government.

Amaechi said that the petroleum industry, which had been the mainstay of the economy, depended largely on shipping, without which the product evacuation would be impossible.

He also identified shipping as the backbone of oil and gas productions and marketing.

“Statistics have shown that over 80 per cent of global oil trade is transported by ships, while in the case of Nigeria, it is 100 per cent,” he said.

“The shipping sub-sector of the maritime industry is estimated to be worth over $3 billion annually.

“It is therefore expedient to stress that transport is demand-driven and government in its commitment to shipping, will consider growth and development of the industry.”

He urged Hassan Bello, executive secretary of the NSC, to organise a stakeholders forum before July to move the sector forward.

“I believe that there is no economy without transportation. Even before the introduction of technology, people transported goods from one place to another either by putting it on their heads or by bicycles.

“The kind of change we are expecting is how transport sector can generate more revenue for government.”

He said government is recording success in the railway sector, adding that before March, the railway contract between Abuja and Kaduna would be test-run.

Amaechi also said that before the end of 2016, there would be normal operation of rail line between South-South and South-West and this will in turn reduce traffic on roads.

The minister said that federal ministry of transport was working with the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) to move cargoes through Lagos to Calabar, Akwa-Ibom, Lokoja and other seaports in the country.

He said there was need for practical steps in formulating a holistic policy that would address a number of issues and difficulties facing the industry across the board, including ineffective laws.

Amaechi bemoaned poor infrastructure, human capacity challenges and lack of political will to engineer fundamental reforms.

Also speaking, Nsebong Akpabio, an assistant corps marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), urged maritime stakeholders to tap all the potential in the maritime industry.

Akpabio spoke on the need to join hands with government to re-position the nation.

Frank Nweke, the chairman of the summit and a former minister of information, said the summit would assist stakeholders to improve and make sure the industry is diversified to create more jobs for our teeming youth.