Babajide Okeowo
The Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has unveiled his blueprint to address the myriads of challenges besetting the maritime sector if he is elected president in 2023.
Some of the major maritime industry challenges that he promised o address head-long include Cabotage regime challenges, port access chaos, and non-disbursement of Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF), among others if elected president in 2023.
Kwankwaso made this promise at a town hall meeting with maritime stakeholders today, organized by Prime Maritime Project, at Sheraton Hotel, Lagos.
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Lamenting that so many things have gone wrong in the nation’s maritime domain, he opined that his experience as a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, former Governor, former Minister of Defense and former Senator, avails him some basic understanding of the sector and especially its challenges.
His words, “I can still remember the days of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) with its beautiful ships flying Nigeria’s flag across the globe. Why did it die? What has become of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF)? Why has it not been disbursed to beneficiaries? From my little knowledge of the sector, a lot of questions are begging for answers!”
“It is also my desire to see that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and other regulatory agencies must be made to perform efficiently and effectively. The observed high-level corruption in the system has to be tackled to improve the productivity at the ports.”
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Describing the persistent appointment of non-professionals to hold key leadership positions in the sector as an anomaly, he promised that if elected, only maritime professionals will be in charge of the sector.
He also noted that the existing port infrastructure was originally designed for a population of fewer than 50 million people in the 1950s with less than 2 million cargo throughputs. Still, the same facilities now cater for over 200 million people in 2022.
Meanwhile, he assured that the party’s agenda captures the core maritime sector opportunities and challenges.
On his part, the Chairman of the occasion, who is also Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Consultative Council (PCC), Otunba Kunle Folarin lamented that previous presidents had promised a lot but didn’t deliver.
The PCC boss canvased for the establishment of a separate Ministry of Maritime Affairs to expeditiously address the challenges with the Cabotage regime, non-disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Finance Fund (CVFF), forex difficulty for shippers, and poor incentives for indigenous operators, among others.
“We need a new maritime agenda and more attention from the Presidency on this sector which has potential to exceed the conservative N7trillion projection when you take cognisance of using water for dams, irrigation, drinkable water, among others.”
