The Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman has challenged stakeholders to harness various opportunities in the Maritime Sub-Sector through entrepreneurship.
Speaking at the second edition of the Nigeria and Entrepreneurship Summit and Honours (NESH) Maritime Roundtable in Lagos, the NPA boss explained that the Maritime Sub-Sector can contribute adequately to economic growth.
Speaking on the theme: “Harnessing the Opportunities for Entrepreneurs in the Nigerian Sub Sector, Bala Usman stated that the “Nation’s Maritime sub sector can be a notable contributor to the efforts at poverty reduction, creation of wealth and promotion of skills acquisition”.
The Roundtable Summit discussions centered on harnessing of vast opportunities that abound in the Maritime domain and the envisaged contributions to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) thereby reducing the dependence on the petroleum sector.
Explaining further, the NPA boss said:“Nigeria has a vast inland waterway resource estimated at about 3,000 km that can support a vibrant inter-reginal trade. The country is also advantageously located on the coastline corridors of the Gulf of Guinea and the Bight of Benin and has eight littoral states coupled with a growing population and huge market that counters the capacity to stimulate substantial domestic tonnage”.
The Managing Director informed the stakeholders at the Summit that there was need to strengthen requisite skills for greater professionalism through funding and capacity building that would drive the implementation of the abundant Maritime resources in the country.
She also noted that the Authority was in collaboration with FMWH and the Nigerian Railway Corporation in order to increase the latter’s market share in the wheel of cargo evacuation from the ports.
In doing this, the Authority advocates critical traffic management framework, collaboration with Inland Container depots like that of Kaduna for swift cargo evacuation to the northern hinterlands.
According to the NPA MD, the deployment of modern technology tools like Revenue and Invoice Management System (RIMS) and the much-expected Single Window for real time swift cargo release processes are in progress.
